Algeria decided to sever diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after what it described as the "exhaustion of all means to preserve bilateral ties", Algerian state media said on Thursday.
Algeria accused the UAE of "provocative and hostile acts", without providing details in a statement released by the foreign ministry.
"Algeria spared no effort to draw the Emirati side's attention to, and to warn it against, the dire consequences that could result from its regrettable and unjustified conduct," the ministry said.
Algiers said it was giving the UAE ambassador to Algeria 48 hours "to comply with the decision".
Shortly after Algeria's announcement, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said on X that diplomatic relations should be based on "rationality, communication and clarity of interests", rather than "riddles and signals that require decoding".
Algerian media outlets have in the past sharply criticised the UAE, accusing it of seeking to sow regional discord.
Last year, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said his country's relations with all Gulf states were warm except for one, in a thinly veiled reference to the UAE. He described ties with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar as "brotherly", while accusing the unnamed country of meddling in Algeria's internal affairs and seeking to destabilise it.
Tebboune has often referred to the UAE in speeches as a "micro-state" or "statelet" seeking to destabilise several countries in the region, citing Libya, Mali and Sudan.
Tensions escalated further in February, when Algeria began the process of cancelling an air services agreement with the UAE that was signed in Abu Dhabi in May 2013.
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"Wherever they set foot, blood flows," he said in a televised interview in July, adding that the UAE has had a "very negative impact".
"We want them to stay away, so that blood does not flow in our country," he added.
At the time, Tebboune said a diplomatic break "would have happened long ago" had Algeria not sought to avoid "deepening divisions" in the Arab world.
Last year, Algerian state television denounced what it called a hostile media campaign after UAE-based broadcaster Sky News Arabia aired an interview with historian Mohamed Amine Belghit, who made controversial remarks questioning the existence of Algeria's indigenous Amazigh culture.
Belghit was jailed in Algeria but later pardoned by Tebboune.
Further divisions between Algiers and Abu Dhabi also stemmed from diverging diplomatic policies, including the UAE's normalisation of ties with Israel in 2020.
(the broadcaster with Reuters and AFP)
