Algeria's Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf
Algeria's Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, right, in conversation at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Sept. 7. Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

Algeria has severed diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, announcing the decision on state television on Thursday and giving the Emirati ambassador 48 hours to comply.

Algeria's foreign ministry said it was acting "following the exhaustion of all means to preserve bilateral relations", accusing the UAE of "provocative and hostile acts" — without providing details. It said Algeria had spared no effort to warn the Emirati side against what it called regrettable and unjustified conduct, and against the consequences that could follow.

Ambassador Yousef Saif Khamis Subaa Al-Ali was summoned and informed of the decision.

The airspace measure, and its exemption

Algeria also said it would close its airspace to all UAE-registered aircraft from Friday.

The exemption matters as much as the closure. UAE commercial flights to and from Algiers are excluded until the end of the year, so the measure falls on state, military and private Emirati aircraft and on overflights, while scheduled passenger services between the two countries continue for now.

Algiers had already signalled the direction in February, when it began the process of cancelling a 2013 air services agreement between the two countries.

How Abu Dhabi responded

The UAE's reply came in two registers.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, wrote on social media that diplomatic relations should rest on "rationality, communication and clarity of interests" rather than "riddles and signals that require decoding". Ambiguity, he added, is not a policy, and noise does not compensate for an absence of vision.

Gargash did not name Algeria or explicitly link his remarks to the announcement.

The UAE foreign ministry was conciliatory. It said it hoped the decision would be "temporary" and affirmed the country's appreciation for what it called the brotherly Algerian people, noting the Algerian community resident in the UAE and Algerian visitors.

⚠️ That second statement is the one worth watching. A government expecting a permanent rupture would not emphasise the resident community and the hope of reversal.

What is underneath it

Algeria has not specified its grievances, but the two states have been at odds on several fronts for years.

Algeria opposes normalisation with Israel. The UAE established relations with Israel through the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020 and has since built economic, diplomatic and defence ties.

On Western Sahara, the UAE backs Morocco's claim to the territory while Algeria supports the Polisario Front's push for independence. That is a first-order question of Algerian foreign policy rather than a peripheral one.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has rarely criticised the UAE by name, but has repeatedly referred to a "micro-state" or "statelet" that he says is seeking to destabilise countries including Libya, Mali and Sudan. In a televised interview in July he said the unnamed state had a "very negative impact" on the region, adding that wherever they set foot, blood flows, and that Algeria wanted them to stay away.

He said then that Algeria could have broken relations much earlier but had refrained because it did not want to deepen regional divisions.

The UAE has denied allegations of involvement in those conflicts.

Not the only rupture

The Algerian decision follows a difficult period for Emirati regional diplomacy.

In January, Somalia cancelled all agreements with the UAE covering ports, security and defence, accusing Abu Dhabi of undermining its sovereignty, national unity and political independence. Those tensions were linked in part to the UAE's extensive ties with the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Sudan has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in its civil war, and in May accused it of supplying drones used in attacks launched from Ethiopia. Abu Dhabi denies both allegations.

Relations with Saudi Arabia have also become strained over Yemen, where Saudi forces struck what Riyadh described in December as a UAE-linked weapons shipment to the separatist Southern Transitional Council, and where Riyadh has backed demands for Emirati forces to withdraw.

What to watch

Whether the 48 hours produces anything. Deadlines of that kind are sometimes a prelude to negotiation rather than a departure. The ambassador's status by the weekend is the first concrete indicator.

Whether the UAE reciprocates. Abu Dhabi's response has been notably measured — a conciliatory ministry statement and an adviser's post that did not name Algeria. A matching expulsion would signal the conciliatory line has been abandoned.

The airspace exemption's expiry. Commercial flights to and from Algiers are exempt only until the end of the year. That is a deadline with a date on it, and what happens on Jan. 1 will show whether this is a gesture or a settlement.