Iran in North Africa; Is Algeria a New Political Partner?

By: Hana Saada

Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sabri Boukadoum held, on Monday, phone talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohamed Javad Zarif on the latest developments in the Middle East as well as several issues relating to the bilateral relations and ways to promote them.

“I had phone talks with my brother Mohamed Javad Zarif, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, during which we discussed the latest developments in the Middle East region, as well as several issues related to bilateral relations and the ways and means to further enhance them,” wrote Mr. Boukadoum in his Tweeter account.

Iran and Algeria enjoy constructive relations with bilateral cooperation further increasing. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed, in 2007, Iran’s determination to remove all obstacles to developing economic ties between Iran and Algeria.

Iran and Algeria hold regular talks on bilateral, regional and international issues. Regular meetings between the two foreign ministries’ officials, high-ranked delegations within the framework of relations and regular consultations are taking place. Their brotherly relations are deeply rooted and go back to the 1960s. Soon after Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, Iran was among the first countries to recognize it as an independent nation, opening the Iranian embassy in autumn of 1964, in Algiers.

Following the victory of 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, bilateral ties between the two nations developed and the two countries intensified meetings and exchanges culminating in the adoption of similar stances on an array of international issues, particularly the problems faced by the World of Islam, like the ones in Palestine and Syria. Algeria is one of countries which have independent positions close to those of Iran on many issues, including in terms of its political literature.

Noting that an accord was inked between Iran and the USA due to the mediation of Algeria during the US embassy takeover in Tehran. Algiers Accord became another cause for better ties between Iran and Algeria. However, both counties’ relations experienced some ups and downs. Yet, in the wake of the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, Tehran and Algiers resumed diplomatic relations and since then these relations keep flourishing, maintaining common approaches to regional and international issues. Algeria opposed the Arab League members on giving the Syrian seat in the League to the Syrian opposition, and Algiers resisted taking any kind of military action in Syria, and as for Hezbollah and Hamas, Algeria objected putting their names on the terrorist group list in the Arab League.

Since the very beginning of the nuclear talks and even before the conclusion of the JCPOA, Algeria was positive about Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities and constantly and explicitly defended Iran’s right in international bodies. Following the implementation of the nuclear deal finalized by Iran and six world powers in July 2015, known as the JCPOA, Algeria considered the deal as an important stage in the process of the settlement of the tension and crisis situations, in a view to preserving international peace and security, and development in the benefit of all the peoples.

Algiers had, in 2015, received the first vice president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Eshaq Jahangiri, just after expressing refusal to join the Saudi coalition. The beginning of a deeper cooperation between the two countries is, therefore, also a clear message sent to Riyadh: Algiers wants to diversify its cooperation with Iran, avoiding getting into a diplomatic game that would be dictated by the Americans. Iran’s Hassan Rouhani said the two countries have always backed each other in difficult times and today, whereas the Algerian side stressed that Tehran-Algiers relations would witness further expansion in all domains during the new Algerian administration’s tenure.