Algeria and Mauritania to End the Crisis

Algeria and Mauritania close the page of dispute that broke out between them during last year’s spring, when the two countries exchange expelling the diplomats in the capitals of the two countries, a crisis that worsen the bilateral relationships.

A statement that was issued by the Foreign Ministry, on Saturday, said that the Foreign Ministry and Cooperation in Mauritania Islamic Republic, Aseslkou Ould Ahmed Izid Bih, will pay a working visit to Algeria on Tuesday, carrying a message from the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, to his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

“This visit will focus on the preparations for the meeting of the eighteenth session of the Algerian-Mauritanian major joint committee, that is scheduled to be held in Algeria before the end of 2016, accompanied by his Algerian counterpart, Ramtane Lamamra.”

Visit of Ould Ahmed Izid Bih to Algeria is the first of its kind for an official Mauritanian of this level, since the crisis of exchanging the expelling of diplomats, which means that the withdrawal of the conflicts may be dashed, after nearly 13 months of crisis.

Media sources talked earlier about the Tunisian mediation between Algeria and Mauritania, which had no positive results, so that the two countries continued the boycotting of meetings that were held on the territory of each other, and at best representation reached its lowest level, like the replacement of Ambassador on behalf of ministers or presidents, as it happened in the first meeting of the Arab Maghreb Union’s Interior Ministers, which took place in Nouakchott and was boycotted by Algeria’s Interior and Local Groups Minister, Tayeb Belaiz.

Such a visit would reactivate the bilateral relationships which have been significantly affected since April 2015, in the wake of the expulsion of the staff of the two countries’ embassies, an incident that was behind the boycott of the two officials to the regional activities, which took place on the territory of the other party.

It is known that the Mauritanian government initiated the expulsion of the second man in the Algerian embassy in Nouakchott, Belkacem Cherouati, on the back of charges that are related to encouraging the edition of the article that was published in one of Mauritanian electronic newspapers, and described it as worsening the relationships of Mauritania with Morocco, a charge that was denied by the Algerian official, and only a few days passed before Mauritania decided to expel the Algerian diplomat, then Algeria did the same thing and expelled the second man in the Mauritanian embassy in Algiers.