Algeria’s Complicit Silence in the Face of Iranian Strikes Against Arab Gulf States
As several Arab countries were directly targeted by Iranian missiles, the reaction of the Algerian regime has stood out for its striking lack of condemnation. Despite the seriousness of the attacks that hit countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, Algiers limited itself to vague statements, carefully avoiding any direct criticism of the actions carried out by its Iranian partner.
This stance comes at a particularly delicate time for the Algerian authorities. The American and Israeli strikes against Iran, which reportedly resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have deeply shaken one of the pillars of the political axis to which Algiers was often associated. The killing of Khamenei occurred during a large-scale military operation targeting Iranian leadership, a development that has significantly escalated regional tensions.
After the fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the difficulties facing the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro, the likely disappearance of the head of the Islamic Republic appears as another setback for this network of contested alliances.
Faced with this major development, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a delayed response, adopting a cautious diplomatic tone. The statement expressed “regret” over the failure of talks between Washington and Tehran and warned against a “military escalation with unpredictable consequences.” However, it did not explicitly condemn the Iranian strikes that affected several Arab states.
This silence contrasts sharply with the reactions across the Arab world, where numerous governments strongly denounced the attacks and expressed solidarity with the targeted countries. Even toward states that Algeria often describes as partners or “brotherly nations,” no clear sign of support was publicly expressed.
Algeria’s position appears all the more ambiguous given that the Algerian regime has not hesitated in the past to swiftly condemn other military operations in the region when they targeted political actors it supports. This difference in tone has fueled criticism that Algerian diplomacy operates with double standards, guided more by ideological alliances than by the principle of regional solidarity.
Another official statement merely announced the creation of a crisis unit tasked with monitoring the situation of Algerian nationals in the Middle East, confirming the extreme caution adopted by Algiers during this crisis.
In the Algerian press, the official line also seems to be reflected. Most outlets have chosen to portray the strikes against Iran as an “American-Israeli aggression,” without mentioning or condemning the Iranian attacks that struck several Arab capitals.
For many observers, this posture reveals the embarrassment of a regime whose international alliances appear increasingly fragile. As some of its traditional partners disappear from the scene or become weakened, Algiers finds itself increasingly isolated on the regional diplomatic stage.
In this context, Algeria’s silence in the face of Iranian strikes appears less like simple diplomatic caution and more like the symptom of a geopolitical positioning that has become difficult to openly defend.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv
