Algeria closes airspace to UAE-registered planes
Algeria said Thursday that it would close its airspace to civilian and military aircraft registered in the UAE from midnight on Sept. 11, after announcing it was severing diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates.
The Defense Ministry said the measure applies to all UAE-registered civilian and military aircraft flying to or from the country, Anadolu agency reported.
The decision exempts Emirati commercial civilian flights operating to and from Houari Boumediene International Airport in Algiers, which will be allowed to continue until the end of 2026, when the contract expires.
Algeria announced earlier Thursday that it was severing relations with the UAE and gave the Emirati ambassador 48 hours to comply with the decision.
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Algeria announced Thursday that it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates.
The foreign ministry said the UAE’s actions had reached a point where they could no longer be considered acceptable or tolerable and that it had “exhausted all means of preserving bilateral relations,” Reuters reported.
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The UAE ambassador was summoned to the ministry, informed of the decision and given 48 hours to comply, the foreign ministry said.
The UAE Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Relations between the two countries have come under growing strain in recent years, with Algerian media outlets sharply criticising the UAE and accusing it of seeking to sow regional discord.
Algiers and Abu Dhabi have also taken differing positions on several regional issues. Algeria opposes normalisation with Israel, while the UAE and Algeria’s regional rival Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.
The two countries are also on opposing sides of the decades-old Western Sahara dispute. The UAE supports Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the territory where it has a consulate, while Algeria backs the Polisario Front, which seeks an independent Western Sahara.
The two countries’ interests have increasingly intersected in the Sahel, where the UAE has expanded ties with several governments in recent years, while Algeria’s relations with some of its southern neighbours have become strained following a series of military coups.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid said last year his country’s relations with all Gulf states were warm except for one — 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.
