Hillary Clinton’s Visit to Algeria Postponed to March

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tour in the Maghreb region, including Algeria, has been postponed to early March, rather than February.

Well informed sources told Djamel Lalami of Echorouk that Hillary Clinton will not play a mediation role between Morocco and Algeria in bid to open the closed border.
The source mentioned that Algeria does not need any mediation from any party, noting that the North African nation has already denied the existence of Saudi or Qatari mediation efforts to speed up the warming up of relations, through opening the border between the two neighbouring countries.
“Relations between Algeria and Morocco are open, and diplomatic channels are open too; so the two brotherly nations do not need any mediation,” the source specified, adding that the recent visit of Morocco Foreign Minister, Saad-Eddine El Othmani, “was one of the official opened channels, which cannot be misinterpreted or misjudged.”
Yet, the visit of the US Secretary of State to Algeria should be devoted to discuss the “Arab Spring” and the wind of change blowing on the region, in addition to key issues, including arm trafficking from Libya, the Islamists coming to power in some countries of the region, in addition to the Western Sahara issue and the Syrian crisis.
Also, the political reforms underway and the upcoming parliamentary election in Algeria, as well as military cooperation and counterterrorism in the African Sahel region, will be on the agenda of the US official, while in Algeria.
Elsewhere, Maghreb Union’s Foreign Ministers are due to meet on 18 February in Rabat, Morocco, to discuss, for the first time, Algeria’s recommendation, related to issues of counter terrorism, arm trafficking, narcotics, and security on borders.