Mauritania Cuts Ties with Israel

Bridges For Peace (Link) - The Media Line - Arieh O�Sullivan (March 22, 2010)

Israel�s last official ambassador to Mauritania said he was surprised by the country�s weekend announcement that it had completely severed ties with the Jewish state. �To be honest,� Boaz Bismut told The Media Line, �I didn�t believe it would happen because I knew the relations were something good and had positive consequences on both sides.� The northwest [Arab] African country�s foreign minister announced over the weekend that it had broken all diplomatic ties with Israel. Speaking in the capital, Nouakchott, late Saturday [March 20], 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 peace making. Even during Israel�s much-criticized 2002 offensive against Palestinian terror bases, Mauritania maintained relations.
But last March, Mauritania expelled all Israeli diplomats, and ordered the Israeli embassy closed, in protest over the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Mouknass said that �freezing� relations would not be sufficient. Mouknass� comments followed accusations from Mauritania's opposition party and pro-Palestinian sympathizers, that it had quietly maintained relations with the Jewish state while publicly stating that it had ended them.

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,� said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bismut, who served as Israel�s ambassador from 2004 through 2008, said that moderate Arab states were needed for the Israel-Palestinian peace talks to succeed. �The Quartet is trying its best efforts to renew the peace process, and everyone knows how much the moderate camp of the Arab world is important for the success of this peace process,� Bismut said. �I must say this decision, in this context and in this timing, disappoints me a lot� And I must say that for Mauritania, the fact that it had full relations with Israel wasn�t doing any harm to their image; to the contrary.�

�When I learned of the news I was very, very disappointed because I know how much efforts were made for these relations,� he added. �Mauritania was in certain ways like an island of calm in a rough sea. It�s a pity.�