EU urges Algeria to restore friendship treaty with Spain

By JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The European Union is urging Algeria to reverse its decision to suspend a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain. Algeria ordered the treaty’s suspension on Wednesday. It was the North African nation’s latest move to ratchet up pressure on Madrid after the Spanish government changed its long-standing policy regarding the contested territory of Western Sahara. The government in Madrid has come out in support of Morocco’s pretensions to keep Western Sahara under its rule, while Algeria supports the territory’s independence movement from rival Morocco. Oil-rich Algeria’s hostile turn against a European Union member comes while Spain and the rest of the EU are hustling to find alternatives to Russian energy to protest the war in Ukraine.