-Analysis-
The government of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was one of few around the world that was sad to see the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Citing fears of terrorist groups, Algiers had long supported the Syrian dictator until he fled the country in December. It then waited several weeks to comment on the new reality in Syria and send Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf to Damascus to meet with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
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Algeria’s chief diplomat said his country was ready to develop its cooperation with Syria on energy, trade, investment and reconstruction, taking a tone similar to that of Arab ministers who visited Damascus recently. Yet Attaf was forced to address another issue that the Algerian regime is concerned about: what would be the fate of those Algerians who fought in Syria alongside Assad’s forces — not those who fought to overthrow the regime.
Algerians in Syria
Syria’s Al-Sharaa rejected the Algerian request to hand over fighters backing Assad, adding that they will be tried along with other pro-Assad fighters.
On the way to taking power, the rebels reportedly detained about 500 Algerian fighters and fighters from the separatist Polisario Front in the city of Aleppo. They were imprisoned alongside other foreign fighters who supported the Assad regime. Algiers has not commented on the reports.
Algerian fighters joined the Syrian civil war first on the side of militant groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra Front which later rebranded itself as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led by Al-Sharaa, under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
Algeria was one of the few Arab countries that had maintained diplomatic ties with Bashar Assad.
Among Algerians fighting alongside the Assad regime, Hussien Bin Issa was the first pro-Assad Algerian fatality in May 2016, according to the Algiers-based daily Echorouk. Bin Issa was one of many Algerians who joined the Arab National Guards, a Lebanese-led group that had fought in the war on the side of the Assad regime. The group included fighters from many Arab countries.
Arab League support
Algiers was aware that Algerian fighters had joined Syria’s civil war and fought alongside Assad’s forces. Tebboune, as well as his predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, backed the Assad family’s rule, providing economic, political and diplomatic support. It did so at the cost of killing Syrians and destroying their cities.
Algeria was one of the few Arab countries that had maintained diplomatic ties with Bashar Assad in recent years. It had supported his return to the Arab League in 2023.
Algeria’s supported the Assad regime because the Arab Gulf countries backed Morocco in its dispute with Algeria over the Western Sahara. And Gulf Arab countries invested billions of dollars to support rebel groups in their war against Assad.
A reset?
Algeria also was hostile to the Arab Spring uprisings that engulfed many of the Arab world countries including Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria in 2011 and later Sudan in 2018 and 2019.
Algeria viewed the success of these pro-democracy uprisings as threatening the rule of generals in the North African country.
With the downfall of the Assad regime, Algeria lost a strong ally in the Arab region. It is now seeking to reset relations with the new leadership, hoping to maintain its old alliance. It is important to the Algerian regime not to lose other allies. Doing so would further weaken its faltering regional position.
