In July 2001, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika became the first Algerian President to visit the White House since 1985. This visit, followed by a second meeting in November 2001, and President Bouteflika's participation at the June 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit, is indicative of the growing relationship between the United States and Algeria. Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, contacts in key areas of mutual concern, including law enforcement and counter-terrorism cooperation, have intensified. Algeria publicly condemned the terrorist attacks on the United States and has been strongly supportive of the Global War on Terrorism. The United States and Algeria consult closely on key international and regional issues. The pace and scope of senior-level visits has accelerated.
History
Precolonial Period The European maritime powers paid the tribute demanded by the rulers of the pirate states of North Africa (Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli) to prevent attacks on their cargo by privateers. No longer covered by English tribute payments after the American Revolution, US merchant ships were seized and sailors enslaved in the years following independence. In 1794, the US Congress allocated funds for the construction of warships to counter the threat of piracy in the Mediterranean. Despite the naval preparations, the United States concluded a treaty with the dey of Algiers in 1797, guaranteeing the payment of tribute amounting to US$10 million over a period of twelve years in exchange for a promise that Algerian privateers would not disturb the US fleets. Ransom and tribute payments to pirate states amounted to 20 per cent of the US government's annual revenues in 1804.
On 5 September 1795, when the two countries signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Regency of Algiers, a few years after the Regency's official recognition of the independence of the young American republic (1783), Algeria was among the first countries to recognise the independence of the United States.Being desirous of establishing and cultivating Peace and Harmony between our Nation and the Dey, Regency, and People of Algiers, I have appointed David Humphreys, one of our distinguished Citizens, a Commissioner Plenipotentiary, giving him full Power to negotiate and conclude a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with you. And I pray you to give full credit to whatever shall be delivered to you on the part of the United States, by him, and particularly when he shall assure you of our sincere desire to be in Peace and Friendship with you, and your People. And I pray God to give you Health and Happiness. Done at Philadelphia this Twenty first day of March 1793, and in the seventeenth Year of the Independence of these United States. — George Washington, Philadelphia, 21 March 1793
Colonial period The Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century diverted the attention of the maritime powers from suppressing what they considered piracy. But when peace was restored to Europe in 1815, Algiers found itself at war with Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Denmark, Russia, and Naples. In March of that year, in what became the Second Barbary War, the United States Congress authorized naval action against the Barbary States, the Turkish Muslim states Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Commodore Stephen Decatur was dispatched with a squadron of ten warships to ensure the safety of United States shipping in the Mediterranean and to force an end to the payment of tribute. After capturing several corsairs and their crews, Decatur sailed into the harbor of Algiers, threatened the city with his guns, and concluded a favorable treaty in which the dey agreed to discontinue demands for tribute, pay reparations for damage to United States property, release United States prisoners without ransom, and prohibit further interference with United States trade by Algerian corsairs. No sooner had Decatur set off for Tunis to enforce a similar agreement than the dey repudiated the treaty. The next year, an Anglo-Dutch fleet, commanded by British admiral Viscount Exmouth, delivered a nine-hour bombardment of Algiers. The attack immobilized many of the dey's corsairs and obtained from him a second treaty that reaffirmed the conditions imposed by Decatur. In addition, the dey agreed to end the practice of enslaving Christians.
The Eisenhower administration gave military equipment to France during the Algerian War of Independence. However, France did not trust U.S. intentions in the Maghreb area, especially since the U.S. had friendly relations with Morocco and Tunisia after the two countries had won their independence. The United States tried to balance the situation with Algeria without alienating France. The FLN tried to appeal to America to support its independence.
Algerian mediation in the Iran hostage crisis Algeria played a key role in the Iran hostage crisis by serving as a neutral mediator between Iran and the United States. The country's initial efforts simply saw Algerian intermediaries pass on communications between the Iranian and American governments, but as bilateral talks reached a deadlock, it took on a more active role to solve the crisis. Both countries eventually accepted Algeria's proposals, culminating in the signing of the Algiers Accords on 19 January 1981, after which Iran released all of the remaining American hostages that it had held at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran since 4 November 1979. Further, because the incident resulted in the severance of Iran–United States diplomatic relations, Algeria briefly served as Iran's protecting power in the United States before the role was passed on to Pakistan, while Switzerland has served as the United States' protecting power in Iran.
The first American ambassador in Algiers was William J. Porter, who was the head of the North African Desk at the State Department when John F. Kennedy showed support to the Algerian independence.
The United States asked for the help of Algerian government on multiple occasions. Ambassador at Large Averell Harriman visited Algiers in December 1966 to ask the Algerian government to intercede with North Vietnamese authorities in favor of American prisoners and to explore the possibility for Algeria to help finding a solution to the Vietnam War.https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/uploaded_pdf/ead_pdf_batch_23_July_2008/ms003012.pdf W. Averell Harriman A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress
In 1969, prominent members of the Black Panthers had settled in Algiers and established the International Section of the Black Panthers Party. In 1972, Willie Roger Holder a Vietnam war veteran and Catherine Marie Kerkow hijacked Western airlines flight 701 from Los Angeles to Seattle and flew to Algeria with a $500.000 ransom to be donated to the Black Panthers. They were granted political asylum but the Algerian authorities seized the ransom money and returned it to the United States.
On November 1, 1979 Deputy Secretary of the State Department Zbigniew Brzezinski attended the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the revolution for the independence of Algeria. The next day he met briefly with the new prime minister of Iran Mehdi Bazargan. Three days later, on November 5, the U.S. ambassador in Algiers received an instruction from the State Department requesting him to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretly as revealed by "Public library of US diplomacy". The State Department wanted to see if Algerian authorities could be of any help after the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been invaded and U.S. citizens detained. The Algerian president immediately sent his ambassador back to his post in Tehran, with no result. In December 1979, the Revolutionary Council invited 3 American clergymen and Algerian archbishop Cardinal Duval, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Algiers, to celebrate Christmas with the hostages.
President Jimmy Carter wanted to obtain the release of the hostages before leaving office. He asked a second time for the help of Algeria, the American diplomats knowing that the Algerian government had kept good relations with Tehran. But they were very doubtful about the ability of the Algerian staff to find a solution to this crisis after all the other previous intermediaries such as former prime minister of Sweden Olof Palme and United Nations General Secretary Kurt Waldheim had failed. Waldheim brought a team of legal experts around him (including Louis-Edmond Pettiti, president of the Paris bar association, Andres Aguilar, former Venezuelan minister of justice, Adib Daoudi, adviser to Syrian president, Hector Jayewardene, a lawyer from Sri Lanka and Mohamed Bejaoui, Algerian representative at the UN) to meet with Iranian representatives in Geneva. This UN delegation turned out to be totally unable to make any progress on the case. Therefore the idea was to use the Algerian mediation for communicating indirectly with the Iranians only. This approach was consistent with Algeria’s role as diplomatic agent (protecting power) for Iran in the United States (while the Swiss embassy was the protecting power for United States interests in Iran).
In October 1980, the Iranian minister of foreign affairs Mohamad-Ali Rajai went to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly to present his country’s case against Iraq. Warren Christopher then Deputy Secretary of State seized the opportunity of a meeting between Rajai and the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations to have a contact with the Iranian minister. But he refused to meet any American official. Nevertheless, at this point Algeria started to get involved in the hostages matter and when Mr Rajai made a stop in Algiers on his way back to Tehran the Algerian diplomats offered their help to find a solution to the hostages crisis by facilitating the communication between the two countries.
Two days before the presidential elections in the United States, the Iranian parliament (Majlis) voted on November 2, 1980 the release of the American citizens detained in Iran in the case the United States accept to meet 4 conditions:
First and foremost to unfreeze Iranian assets in U.S. banks, To return the wealth collected by the late Shah during his reign, To withdraw all lawsuits against Iran in the United States To pledge non-intervention in Iranian affairs.
The message was immediately delivered by the Algerian foreign minister Benyahia to the State Department with a letter confirming that the Algerian government was officially considered an intermediary by Iran. The Iranian ministry of foreign affairs stressed that the United States government was requested to "announce its response as soon as possible" and "to inform the world" of the American answer to the hostage release condition.
The Algerian foreign minister sent the ambassadors to Tehran to receive from the Iranians their detailed proposal for the release of the hostages. They started a diplomatic shuttle between Tehran and Washington DC. Their role was strictly limited to transporting messages between the negotiators of the two country but were not themselves contributing to these negotiations. The Algerian diplomats were then referred in the press as "the mailmen".
The only Iranian condition that was political, concerning the pledge of non-intervention of the United States in Iranian affairs did not present any difficulty and did not necessitate any negotiation. The American diplomats in Algiers made a declaration that was later transmitted to the Iranians and included in the Algiers Accords : "It is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs".