Mauritania Cuts Ties with Israel

June 1, 2010

The northwest [Arab] African country’s foreign minister, Naha Mint Hamdi Ould Mouknass, said Mauritania has cut ties with Israel “completely and definitively.” The move leaves just Egypt and Jordan [as Arab nations] with full diplomatic relations with Israel. As an Islamic nation that straddles black and Arab Africa, Mauritania was one of only three Arab League members with full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Relations were forged in 1999 in the wake of Palestinian–Israeli peacemaking. Even during Israel’s much-criticized 2002 offensive against Palestinian terror bases, Mauritania maintained relations. In March 2009, Mauritania expelled all Israeli diplomats and ordered the Israeli embassy closed in protest over the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip [Operation Cast Lead]. During the flowering of relations between the two countries, Israel facilitated numerous projects there, helping to build Mauritania’s first and, so far, only oncology center.

Israeli foreign ministry officials played down the Mauritanian announcement. “There is nothing new in this statement,” said Andy David, a foreign ministry spokesman. “It is part of the ongoing and increasing extremism being witnessed in that region, which is being influenced by the extreme teachings of Iran.”

Officials in Jerusalem blamed the cut in ties on attempts by the current Mauritanian leader Gen. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, who seized power in a coup in 2008 to work his country back into the Arab fold and support from Iran. “They went from being a moderate country like Egypt and Jordan to one more like Libya and Syria.”

Bismut said that moderate Arab states were needed for the Israel–Palestinian peace talks to succeed. “I must say this decision, in this context and in this timing, disappoints me a lot…because I know how much efforts were made for these relations. Mauritania was in certain ways like an island of calm in a rough sea. It’s a pity.”

Source: Excerpts of an article by Arieh O’Sullivan, The Media Line