Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Russian Ministry of Defense: 37 Ukrainian drones destroyed in 4 hours over regions of Russia and the Black Sea.
Sheikh Qassem: Our supporters make up more than half of Lebanon's population, and all of these people are united under the banner of protecting Lebanon, its Resistance, its people, and its integrity.
Sheikh Qassem: There will be no phased handing in of our arms. [The Israelis] must first enact the agreement before we start talking about a defensive strategy.
Sheikh Qassem: Be brave in the face of foreign pressures, and we will be by your side in this stance.
Sheikh Qassem: Stripping us of our arms is like stripping us of our very soul, and this will prompt us to show them our might.
Sheikh Qassem: We will not abandon our arms, for they gave us dignity; we will not abandon our arms, for they protect us against our enemy.
Sheikh Qassem: The US efforts we are seeing are aimed at sabotaging Lebanon and constitute a call for sedition.
Sheikh Qassem: If you truly want to establish sovereignty and work for Lebanon’s interests, then stop the aggression.
Sheikh Qassem: The United States, which is meddling in Lebanon, is not trustworthy but rather poses a danger to it.
Sheikh Qassem: The United States is preventing the weapons that protect the homeland.

National Interest: US must 'punish Algiers', EU shouldn't rely on them

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The National Interest
  • 2 Dec 2022 14:06
  • 1 Shares
4 Min Read

An article written in The National Interest wages war in imperialist rhetoric - this time against Algeria.

  • x
  • Sonatrach's headquarters in Algiers, Algeria November 25, 2019. (Reuters)
    Sonatrach's headquarters in Algiers, Algeria November 25, 2019. (Reuters)

As an Arab country with energy resources, could Algeria become a balancing ground for the United States with Algiers' friendly neighbors? 

An article written in The National Interest argues that the United States, after the incumbent war in Ukraine and the energy wars in Europe, should not rely on Algeria for energy. However, the approach to reasoning why Europe should not rely on Algiers comes close to what we see as an Israeli tantrum. 

Alex Grinberg, an Israeli intelligence officer, argues that Algeria has growing ties with US rivals, like Iran and Russia, with economic and military contracts running between them - the ties raise concerns in the eyes of Washington, such that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Algeria in April 2022 to address Algiers' relationship with Russia in an attempt to dissuade them from further bilateral developments. This did not work.

Read next: Moscow welcomes Algiers' desire to join BRICS

Last month, Russia and Algeria conducted joint military exercises in the Mediterranean Sea. 

This month, December, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will be signing an arms deal worth more than $12 billion in a coming visit to Russia. This comes after Republican Representative Lisa McClain wrote to Blinken last year telling him to sanction Algeria for purchasing weapons from Russia worth $7 billion in 2022. Algeria's sovereign decisions violated the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. With this being said, Algeria is one of the Russian military's most important clients, and is actually becoming the African country with the most military spending. 

Related News

Trump rules out World War for Kiev, threatens Russia with economic war

Iran pushes diplomacy as Europe threatens sanctions snapback

Interestingly, Algeria has a growing importance to southern Europe because of its natural gas supplies, as it is going to become the biggest gas supplier to Italy in 2023.

'Algeria cannot go unpunished'

Pushing imperialist rhetoric, Grinberg writes, "the United States and Europe must hold the government in Algeria accountable for its actions before it’s too late," entailing interventionist and aggressive approaches in dealing with Algiers for making sovereign decisions which, actually, do not threaten Washington's national security. 

"Algeria’s military shopping spree cannot go unpunished," Grinberg wrote. "The arms deals violate U.S. laws, and Washington should implement sanctions immediately."

Algerian energy is pivotal to European security today, as it supplies almost 49% of Spain's imported gas, flowing through 2 pipelines Medgaz and GME. In July this year, Sonatrach - an Algerian energy company - signed a $4 billion oil and gas deal with 2 major European energy companies, ENI, which is Italian, and Total, which is French. 

Read next: Sonatrach, Eni announce start of production in oil field

The National Interest speculates a brow-raising conspiracy, that with the fact that Sonatrach is a state-owned corporation, the "Algerian regime" could use the company "as a geopolitical tool." The author argues that when Spain decided to support Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, Algeria recalled its ambassador from Spain and Sonatrach hiked gas prices flowing into Spain. Grinberg says nothing about Spain's intervention in Algerian border security.

The writer went on to slam Algiers, saying that since the country's "independence" - actually, a liberation - from France in 1962, Algeria is a "dictatorship" ruled by a "junta of generals" with a "corrupt and inefficient economy, denying liberties to its citizens and flouting human rights."

It's worth noting that Grinberg is an Israeli officer serving the intelligence sector of the Israeli military, which continuously kills, subjugates, incarcerates, and illegally annexes land. 

  • United States
  • Eni
  • Spain
  • Morocco
  • Algeria
  • TotalEnergies
  • Sonatrach

Most Read

Almost instantly after the Helsinki Accords were signed, organisations sprouted to document purported violations, whose findings were fed to overseas embassies for international amplification. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

How ‘Human Rights’ became a Western weapon

  • Opinion
  • 23 Aug 2025
Israeli soldiers stand on the top of armoured vehicles parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025 (AP)

Palestinian fighters target Israeli soldiers, vehicles in Gaza

  • Politics
  • 21 Aug 2025
Launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen toward the occupied Palestinian territories. (YAF military media)

Yemeni Forces announce firing hypersonic missile at Al-Lydd Airport

  • Politics
  • 22 Aug 2025
The ‘Arab Façade’ for Israeli occupation in Gaza

The ‘Arab Façade’ for Israeli occupation in Gaza

  • Opinion
  • 23 Aug 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
A scene showing an al-Qassam Brigades fighter during an ambush on July 7, 2025, in a video released by the al-Qassam Brigades on August 26, 2025 (al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)
Politics

Al-Qassam reveals Beit Hanoun ambush targeting Israeli forces

A Palestinian youth stands on a hill overlooking IsraelI Ofer Prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP)
Politics

77 Palestinian prisoners killed in Israeli prisons since October 7

US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a joint press conference with US deputy special envoy for Middle East peace Morgan Ortagus at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, Tuesday, August 26, 2025 (AP)
Politics

US envoy Barrack calls Lebanese journalists 'animalistic"'

Tom Barrack's imperial tantrum in Beirut: When entitlement speaks (Photo by Mahdi Rtail)
Politics

Tom Barrack's imperial tantrum in Beirut: When entitlement speaks

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS