Abuja: On Thursday, the Ghanaian capital, Accra, witnessed a demonstration in support and solidarity with Palestine.
Hundreds of people participated in the demonstration held at Kwame Nkrumah Square in Accra, where they chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine.”
The demonstrators raised Palestinian and Ghanaian flags, and carried banners with phrases such as “No to war,” “We stand with the Palestinians,” and “Justice for Palestine.”
In a statement to Anadolu, former parliamentarian Ras Mubarak, who participated in the demonstration, said, “ Israel committed crimes against humanity in Palestine.”
He affirmed that the Ghanaian people stand by their oppressed Palestinian counterpart, demanding an immediate end to the attacks on them.
For the 27th day, the Israeli army is waging a devastating war on Gaza, killing a total of 9,061 Palestinians, including 3,760 children, and wounding 32,000. It also killed 133 Palestinians and arrested about 1,900 in the West Bank, according to official Palestinian sources.
Algeria is preparing to return its ambassador to Madrid after 19 months due to “Sanchez’s position on Palestine and his amendments regarding the Sahara.”
It seems that the prolonged crisis between Algeria and Spain is on its way to being resolved, after the Algerian authorities decided to appoint a new ambassador to Madrid, as an indication of the return of relations to normal after more than a year and a half of estrangement, following the change in the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue.
The Spanish newspaper El Confidential reported that Algeria would appoint diplomat Abdel Fattah Daghmoum as its ambassador to Madrid, succeeding Said Moussi, who was summoned to Algeria and did not return to Spain, before being appointed as Algeria’s ambassador to Paris, a position he currently holds.
The diplomat Daghmoum has experience in Algerian-Spanish relations, given that he served as an advisor at the Algerian embassy in Madrid in 2019, before he was later appointed as Algerian ambassador to Guinea Conakry, and later became an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Algeria following the recent diplomatic movement.
Several factors contributed to the positive development of the situation in relations, including Algeria's appreciation for Pedro Sanchez's position in favor of establishing a Palestinian state, which he expressed in the context of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The newspaper quoted an Algerian government official familiar with the relationship between Algeria and Spain, saying, “The idea of the ambassador returning to Madrid is not new, but the authorities had to wait for the appropriate moment to do so.” He highlighted that “Sanchez’s recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly encouraged the sending of the Algerian ambassador to Madrid.”
Regarding the backgrounds of these developments, Jamal Al-Din Bou Abdullah, President of the Algerian-Spanish Industrial and Commercial Group, said in a statement to the “Everything Algeria” website, that contacts took place between the two parties in September in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, during which an agreement was reached. Agreement on the gradual return of relations between Algeria and Spain.
The spokesman stressed that several factors contributed to the positive development of the situation in relations, including Algeria’s appreciation for Pedro Sanchez’s position in favor of establishing a Palestinian state, which he expressed in the context of the Israeli aggression against Gaza, as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sanchez distinguished himself from other European Union leaders at the October 16 meeting regarding the recognition of a Palestinian state within the framework of the two-state solution as “the only way” to resolve the conflict “finally,” in his words.
Bouabdellah highlighted that Algeria noticed that Sanchez modified his speech regarding the solution in Western Sahara, and no longer spoke explicitly about the autonomy proposal proposed by Rabat, which was originally the cause of the crisis with Algeria.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly last September, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for “a mutually acceptable solution within the framework of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions” without any reference to autonomy.
Other indicators of rapprochement between the two countries, according to the spokesman, include the resumption of Air Algerie flights to Palma, as well as the increase in Iberia flights between Madrid and Algeria, and the return of the Barcelona-Oran flight to Fuling, which suggests a desire to revive the momentum of previous relations.
Also noteworthy was the recent visit of the head of the Spanish energy company Naturgy, Francisco Rinas, to Algeria, and his meeting with the general director of the Sonatrach complex, Rachid Hachichi, where the two parties discussed the level of existing partnership between the two institutions within the framework of long-term contracts for the sale and purchase of natural gas, and emphasized the pivotal role of Algeria . In ensuring gas supplies to Spain and Europe in general, as it is a safe and reliable supplier.
Last year, the Sanchez government faced great pressure from Spanish institutions and businessmen. Spanish exports to Algeria declined sharply after the suspension of the friendship agreement between the two countries , and the practice of an almost ban on the entry of Spanish products into Algeria, at a time when Algerian official figures indicate that the volume of... Trade exchange between Algeria and Madrid amounted to about 9 billion dollars, before the current crisis.
Algeria noted that Sanchez modified his speech regarding the solution in Western Sahara, and no longer spoke explicitly about the autonomy proposal proposed by Rabat, which was originally the cause of the crisis with Algeria.
March 19, 2022 marked the beginning of the crisis between Algeria and Spain, after Algeria announced the withdrawal of its ambassador from Madrid, then the decision of the Algerian presidency to immediately suspend the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation concluded with the Kingdom of Spain in 2002, decisions that came after the revelation that the Spanish government had adopted The plan for autonomy in Western Sahara is opposed by Algeria, which defends the right of the Sahrawis, some of whom it hosts on its territory as refugees, to self-determination.
The Spanish position was surprising, considering that Madrid is the former colonial power in Western Sahara, and is still the administrative power of the region, according to the Algerian authorities.
The Algerian presidency stated in its justifications at the time that what Spain did “is a violation of its legal, moral and political obligations of the authority responsible for the region, which falls on the shoulders of the Kingdom of Spain until the end of colonialism in Western Sahara is declared by the United Nations.”