Hours before his arrival to Algeria, the visit of Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares was postponed to a later date at the host country's request, citing failure to resolve some issues scheduled for discussion, according to Algerian media sources.
The Spanish official's visit was scheduled to normalize bilateral relations after months of political and trade rupture following Algiers' protest at a Spanish decision to support the Moroccan Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara.
Algeria withdrew its ambassador and suspended the Friendship Treaty signed in 2002.
The sources said the date of the visit "had been confirmed until Sunday evening," noting that a Spanish government delegation visited Algeria to discuss the issues that Albares was supposed to address with his counterpart, Ahmed Attaf, and other officials he was scheduled to meet, including Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui.
They highlighted that the visit was postponed after the two sides failed to reach a consensus on some of the issues scheduled to be discussed without further details.
Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front, wanted an explicit Spanish announcement on its return to neutrality in the Sahara issue in exchange for lifting the ban on trade exchanges.
It is likely that the Algerians were hoping Albares would make statements that could be interpreted as "Madrid does not support Moroccan Autonomy, but rather prefers that the conflict be left to the United Nations as the only body authorized to resolve it."
Spanish newspaper El País stated on Sunday that the visit had been postponed "for reasons related to an Algerian agenda" without further elaborating.
It quoted Albares as asserting that Algeria is a friendly country to Spain, which has always extended its hand for solid relations based on good neighborliness.
It also referred to the resumption of trade exchanges in some sectors last month, which was an indication of the return of relations to normal, according to the minister.
Ahead of the visit, Algerian sources announced that several issues scheduled for discussion between Albares and Attaf included the resumption of intra-regional trade, the Sahara issue, the situation in Mali, and the Israeli war on Gaza.
The two countries share several positions regarding the Gaza war, namely the need for an immediate halt to Israeli aggression and the entry of aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Signs of a breakthrough in ties between the two countries appeared last November, with the return of the Algerian ambassador to Madrid 20 months after his withdrawal.
Last December, Air Algerie, the national carrier, resumed its flights to major Spanish cities after several months of halt.
