Moroccan-Algerian Relations International legal status of Western Sahara

Algerian Moroccan relations have been tensing for decades. A careful reading of the results of relations between the two countries, after nearly sixty years of independence, reveals that the two countries' borders have been closed (and still) for 45 years (63-69, 76-88, from 1994 until now), and that the severing of diplomatic relations lasted nearly twenty years. Border disputes between the two countries have also caused two major wars (the 1963 Sand War and the 1975 Desert War).

Although diplomatic relations between Algeria and Morocco were restored in May 1988. The borders between the two countries were opened after a 12-year hiatus. Soon, the state of understanding and cooperation began to reach its limits at the bilateral levels (Algeria and Morocco) on the one hand and the countries of the Maghreb as a whole on the other, which culminated in the creation of the Maghreb Union in 1989. Relations between Algeria and Morocco quickly returned to tension after a few years. Until the severance of relations between the two countries in August 2021.

The conflict in the desert represents the core of the dispute between the two countries. It is the longest-running and most enduring conflict in North Africa - the Sahel region and has had serious long-term consequences for Algerian Moroccan relations since its inception in 1975.

The central question that the newspaper is trying to answer is what is the legal status of the disputed Western Sahara in international public law?