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Morocco World News with Maghreb Intelligence
Rabat, Nov 9, 2012
Before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s plane left the tarmac of Algiers’ airport, the Algerian leaders had admonished the Ansar Eddine movement, which controls northern Mali together with Al Qaeda groups. While the Algerians had proved intractable on Western intervention in Azawad to dislodge the Islamist radicals who occupy major cities, they also put pressure on Ansar Eddine to negotiate. According to a French diplomat stationed in Bamako, Algeria scored an amazing coup by tricking Paris and Washington. “Algiers knew that its approval for a sustainable and efficient military intervention was impossible in northern Mali. Algiers also knew it could not constantly ignore Washington’s calls. By forcing Ansar Eddine’s leaders to go to Algiers and Ouagadougou to show their cooperation and ease Al Qaeda, the Algerians won on all fronts, “says embittered the diplomat.
Since the conflict began, reports of Western intelligence services have drawn attention to the relations considered too ambiguous between Algeria and Ansar Eddine. “Northern Mali is almost Algeria. It is its living space. Neither Washington nor Paris, who know the relationship between Iyad Ag Ghali and some Algerian leaders, can put Algeria in trouble. Everyone is lying in a poker game in which everyone would win, “says our source in Bamako.
