Algeria cuts diplomatic ties with UAE after years of tensions

Algeria has announced that it is severing diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying it had exhausted all means of preserving bilateral ties.

The decision was announced by Algeria’s state news agency, which cited the Foreign Ministry.

Tensions between the two countries had been building for several years and escalated amid geopolitical differences.

Algeria had previously accused Abu Dhabi of interfering in its internal affairs and attempting to destabilise national unity.

In January 2026, Algerian newspaper El Khabar, which is considered close to the country’s authorities, reported that Algeria suspected the UAE of supporting the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia, a separatist group designated as a terrorist organisation by Algeria.

Last year, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ​said his country's relations with all Gulf states were ‌warm ⁠except for one, in a thinly veiled reference to the UAE. He described ties with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman ​and Qatar ​as "brotherly", while ⁠accusing the unnamed country of meddling in Algeria's internal affairs ​and seeking to destabilise it.

Tensions ​escalated ⁠further in February, when Algeria began the process of cancelling an air services agreement with ⁠the ​UAE that was signed ​in Abu Dhabi in May 2013.

By Aghakazim Guliyev