From Brotherhood to Denial… Syria Turns the Tables on Algeria!

Ahmed Attaf, Algeria’s Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs, knocking on Damascus’s doors in search of « diplomatic discounts » was just another episode in the series of diplomatic embarrassments that have come to define Algeria’s foreign policy.

Armed with a formal letter from his president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Attaf packed his bags and headed to the Syrian capital, hoping to secure a deal for the release of Algerian soldiers and Polisario Front militants who had been captured by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

However, it seems Attaf miscalculated the new political dynamics in Damascus. The transitional Syrian president, Ahmed Hussein Al-Sharaa, did not hesitate for a second to reject the Algerian request, asserting that the detainees would be tried alongside Assad’s remaining loyalists, who had bet on the wrong horse.

Thus, Algeria’s foreign minister left empty-handed, as if his visit had been nothing more than a sightseeing trip leading to closed doors—doors that remain shut to those accustomed to playing mere extras in regional political dramas.

As usual, Algeria’s foreign ministry tried to put a positive spin on the failed visit, announcing that the meeting was an opportunity to discuss “prospects for cooperation and strengthening fraternal and solidarity ties,” as if the Syrian president’s remarks about prosecuting the Algerian soldiers were just passing clouds.

But reality was harsher than any attempt at damage control. The Syrian decision made it clear that Algeria’s so-called “influence” in the region is nothing more than an illusion sustained by official rhetoric, and that its blind support for failing regimes now comes with a cost.

The ultimate irony is that Algeria, which insists on portraying itself as the « champion of just causes, » found itself defending mercenaries sent to support a regime that could not withstand the storm of change. As if it had yet to realize that its unconditional backing of dubious movements was only another weight dragging down its already crumbling reputation.

Attaf left Damascus well aware that “Algerian diplomacy” is nothing more than a misleading label for an erratic policy—one that neither knows how to begin nor how to end.