of his stay had become much more‘‘restricted and controlled.’’

Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia ofAlgeria, which is sheltering Gaddafy’sdaughter Aisha, his sons Mohammedand Hannibal, and his second wife Saf-iya, said there was no threat to Libyacoming from within its territory. Theirpresence in Algeria has been a bone ofcontention in Algerian-Libyan ties,points out Magharebia.com.

Commenting on Libya’s demand thatTunisia and Egypt hand over formerregime’s officials, Abdallah Triki, Tuni-sian state minister in charge of Araband Maghreb affairs, told Al-JazeeraTV, Doha (16 ⁄ 3) the ministers hadagreed on ‘‘extradition of persons per-ceived to be a security threat for thesecountries.’’

Morocco offered to host the next minis-terial conference at the end of 2011.(Sources as referenced in text)

Mauritanian President Mohamed OuldAbdelaziz on March 13th vowed topress on with attacks on ‘‘criminal ele-ments’’ after a failed air raid in Malion suspected members of Al-Qaeda inthe Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM). Twocivilians were injured in the Maurita-nian air raid on the 10th. Mauritanianarmy planes had spotted a convoy of‘‘terrorists’’ and opened fire, but thevehicle occupants spotted the planesand fled, a military source said on the12th. (� AFP 13 ⁄ 3) Gaddafy’s bequest to

region p. 19153; Libya and Tunisia agree to

cooperate on security p. 19116

IN BRIEFUNECA: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Carlos Lopes of GuineaBissau as the new Executive Secretary of theUN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), succeeding Abdoulie Janneh from TheGambia. Lopes has more than 24 years ofexperience working at the UN. (PANA24 ⁄ 3)

POLITICALRELATIONS

ALGERIA – MOROCCORapprochement

A new warmth in relations couldmean the reopening of the borderbut agreement on Western Sahararemains problematic.

Several high-level diplomatic meetingsinitiated by Prime Minister AbdelilahBenkirane in recent weeks have raisedhopes that Algeria and Morocco mightfinally reopen their border, closed since1994. Benkirane took over as head of

government in January followingNovember legislative elections in whichhis Islamist Parti de la justice et dudeveloppement (PJD) won 107 out of395 seats in the National Assembly.

An Algeria-Morocco rapprochementwould be immensely popular in bothcountries and there are claims it couldadd 1–2 percentage points to regionalgross domestic product. It also scoresin the wider North African region sinceTunisia is leading efforts to revive thefive-nation Arab Maghreb Union(AMU).

The reason for the rapprochementappears to be the need of both govern-ments to deliver political reform whileavoiding uprisings. The new MoroccanForeign Minister, Saad Eddine el Oth-mani, made Algiers the destination ofhis first foreign trip. His Algerian coun-terpart, Mourad Medelci, reciprocatedand Benkirane held talks with AlgerianPresident Abdelaziz Bouteflika on thesidelines of the African Union (AU)summit in Addis Ababa in January.

The media on both sides predict nor-malisation soon. Othmani is keen tomake a breakthrough but, a seniorMoroccan source told Africa Confiden-tial, he ‘‘will have to be wary that hedoes not move too fast and get dupedby the Algerians. We have a very longhistory of disappointments and buildingtrust will take a long time’’.

King Mohammed VI has appointed for-mer Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi-Fihri,an enormously experienced ‘safe pair ofhands’, as one of his formal advisors.In theory, the government is responsi-ble for day-to-day management ofMorocco’s affairs, while the King andhis advisors concentrate on longer-termstrategy. However, the Palace sees for-eign affairs, especially relations with theold enemy, Algeria, as its own preserveand will probably tussle with the inde-pendent-minded government for controlof policy.

Algeria is less enthusiastic. Medelci is along-time ally of the President’s, withwhom he spent much time in Swissexile prior to Bouteflika’s return toAlgeria in the late 1990s. Bouteflikawas born in the Moroccan border townof Oujda during the French colonialperiod and is steeped in Moroccan cul-ture but he distrusts Rabat’s intriguing.

Stumbling Block

Looming over everything is the dis-puted Western Sahara, which Moroccocontinues to develop as an integral partof the kingdom, while the PolisarioFront – backed by Algeria since its cre-ation in 1973 – is pressing for a fullUnited Nations decolonisation process.Bouteflika’s association with the ques-

tion dates from Polisario’s birth, whenhe was the late president Houari Bou-mediene’s youthful Foreign Minister.

This, by itself, could scupper the rap-prochement with Morocco, says asenior Algerian source. ‘‘Of courseBouteflika wants a resumption of tieswith Morocco and the relaunch of theUMA, to a big fanfare, to be part ofhis legacy. But not at the cost of lettingthe King of Morocco get his way onthe Saharan question. There will be noaccommodation of Morocco while Bou-teflika remains in charge – and proba-bly not for some time after that.’’

The diplomatic outlook for an enduringSaharan settlement remains poor. AUS-backed process of informal talksbetween Morocco and Polisario, mainlyheld at Manhasset in New York state,continued in mid-March, when observ-ers from Algeria and Mauritania alsoattended.

Morocco continues to stick to propos-als for a solution that would give theterritory ‘autonomy’ under the Moroc-can monarch. Polisario insists on aUN-organised referendum for the Sah-rawi people to choose between auton-omy under the King and fullindependence. (Africa Confidential, London16 ⁄ 3)

The three days of talks at Long Islandnear New York ended on March 13thwith little progress, Reuters reported(14 ⁄ 3). ‘‘Each party continued to rejectthe proposal of the other as the solebasis for future negotiations, while reit-erating their willingness to worktogether to reach a solution,’’ UNenvoy Christopher Ross said in a state-ment. He said the parties would meetagain in Europe in June.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, Polisario SecretaryGeneral, told Radio Algeria International(18 ⁄ 3) that the ninth informal round oftalks ‘‘ended in failure and no remark-able progress because of the intransi-gence of Morocco.’’ (sources as referencedin text) Renewed optimism on AMU p. 19151;

Relations enter ‘‘historic moment’’ p. 19154;

Latest round of talks p. 19154

ERITREA – ETHIOPIARising Tensions

The international community urgesrestraint as Addis Ababa launchesan attack inside its neighbour’sterritory.

Ethiopian troops launched a militaryincursion into Eritrea on March 15th,destroying three camps of a rebel forceit termed as belonging to ‘‘Eritreanmercenaries’’ close to the commonborder.

March 1st–31st 2012 Africa Research Bulletin – 19187

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� Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2012.