Algeria Gate: The day after the shock announcement of the rupture of diplomatic relations between Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed, in a communiqué, the motives that led to this unprecedented decision.
Exhausted restraint in the face of behaviors deemed hostile
According to the communiqué, Algeria states that it showed, in the face of the multiplication of behaviors it qualifies as provocative or hostile on the part of the United Arab Emirates, great restraint and a high sense of responsibility. The text specifies that, in a spirit of full respect for the principles governing relations between states, Algiers spared no effort to draw the attention of the Emirati side and warn it against the serious consequences to which these behaviors, judged regrettable and unjustified, could lead.
Despite these repeated warnings, the ministry continues, the United Arab Emirates continued to persist in these behaviors, to the point of reaching a threshold that Algeria now considers unacceptable and untenable within the framework of relations between two sovereign states, and which could not remain without a response.
A 48-hour ultimatum addressed to the Emirati ambassador
It is on this basis that the Algerian government announced, this Thursday, September 10, 2026, that it had decided to sever its diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, after considering that it had exhausted all avenues likely to preserve the bilateral relations. According to the communiqué, the Emirati ambassador was received that same day at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was officially notified of the content of this decision, as well as a 48-hour deadline to comply with it.
Algeria thus presents itself as the first Arab and Muslim country to sever its diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates.
A broader list of grievances circulated on social media
Beyond the official communiqué of the ministry, a series of more detailed grievances circulated widely on social media in the wake of this announcement, without all of these accusations being taken up word for word in the official communiqué. Among the elements put forward: attempts to spread chaos in Algeria, support and financing alleged for the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), classified as a terrorist organization by the Algerian authorities, attempts at interference in the country’s internal affairs and influence on the outcome of elections, military and financial support for Morocco in the context of its arms acquisitions from Israel, as well as attempts at destabilization on the country’s borders through the financing of militias and armed organizations in the Sahel region. Some of these publications also evoke the existence of informal coordination between the Emirates, France, Morocco, and Israel, as well as political and financial support for individuals wanted by Algerian justice.
It should be emphasized that this more extensive list of grievances, while circulating widely in the wake of the official announcement, has not been formally taken up, in these terms, by the communiqué of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has not, at this stage, been the subject of independent verification.
Another element advanced by Algeria Gate
Another element, this time advanced by the site Algeria Gate, adds a further dimension to the account of this crisis. According to these sources, after a similar first operation carried out in Paris, Abu Dhabi would this time have mobilized intermediaries in Spain with the aim, according to the site, of coming to the aid of a businessman on the run, convicted by Algerian justice.
Still according to Algeria Gate, the Emirates would have tasked the businessman Nasser bin Thaaloub, presented as close to Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, advisor in charge of the Emirati national security apparatus, with providing direct support to a former Algerian businessman, sentenced in absentia to twenty years in prison in a corruption case. The mission entrusted to him would consist of deploying, in Spain, political, media, and financial lobbying aimed at obtaining the release of Ayoub Aissiou, presented by the site as a fugitive who embezzled Algerian public funds and despoiled citizens through fictitious real estate projects.
The website also evokes an Algerian response that would aim to be “without weakness” in the face of what it qualifies as hostile campaigns orchestrated from Abu Dhabi, and suggests that the diplomatic rupture could be accompanied by unprecedented economic sanctions targeting the presence of Emirati companies in Algeria.
These pieces of information, relayed by a single source, have to date been the subject of no official confirmation, neither on the Algerian side nor on the Emirati side, and must be read with the caution that is required in the face of accusations of this gravity targeting a person named by name.
