UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
MAURITANIA: IRIN News Briefs [19991102]

MAURITANIA: IRIN News Briefs [19991102]


MAURITANIA: IRIN News Briefs, Tuesday 2 November

CONTENTS:

Mauritania gets 10.7 million-euro EU grant Iraq planning subversion, Interior Minister says Peace a strategic option, Prime Minister says Students protest diplomatic ties

Mauritania gets 10.7 million-euro EU grant

The European Union (EU) finalised on Monday a 10.7 million-euro (US $11.3 million) grant to build and maintain roads, buy medicines and help reduce poverty in Mauritania, the EU said.

Iraq planning subversion - Interior Minister says

Mauritania's Interior Minister, Dahould Abdel Jelil, said on Monday Iraq had been planning subversive acts in Mauritania because of Nouakchott's decision to establish diplomatic links with Israel.

He told the French news agency, AFP, that Iraqi agents had received direct orders from their country's deputy prime ministers, Tareq Aziz and Taha Yasin Ramadan, to recruit saboteurs from mainly the pro-Iraq Taliaa opposition party. AFP said four Taliaa party leaders visited Baghdad recently and that a delegation from Iraq's Baath Party was in Nouakchott for a political congress.

Peace a strategic option, Prime Minister says

Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El Afia Ould Mohamed Khouna said the re-establishment of diplomatic links with Israel stemmed from Mauritania support for the Middle East peace process, the Moroccan news agency, MAP, reported on Monday.

Khouna, who arrived in Rabat with a message form the Mauritania president to King Mohammed VI, said peace with Israel was a strategic option for all Arab countries.

Foreign ministers of Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia met in Libya over the weekend to discuss Mauritania's action, Reuters reported on Monday. Egypt, under president Anwar Sadat, was the first Arab country to re-establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

Students protest diplomatic ties

Students burnt tyres and erected barricades in Nouakchott on Monday in a spontaneous protest against the upgrading of diplomatic ties with Israel to ambassadorial level, MAP reported. Students also carried banners denouncing Israel and the United States, where the accord was signed.

Anti-riot police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who burnt US and Israeli flags, MAP said. Police also threw up a cordon around the US Embassy and the office that represents Israeli interests in Nouakchott.

[ENDS]

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Item: irin-english-1903

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999

Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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