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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Mauritania
Index
Prior to the December 1984 coup that brought Taya to power,
the Mauritanian-Moroccan cooperation agency stated that relations
between the two countries were on the mend in spite of alleged
Moroccan complicity in a 1981 coup attempt and Mauritania's
subsequent turn toward Algeria
(see Consolidation of Power
, ch.
1). Representatives from both sides initiated a series of lowlevel contacts that led to a resumption of diplomatic ties in
April 1985. For Mauritania, the détente with Morocco promised to
end the threat of Moroccan incursions, and it also removed the
threat of Moroccan support for opposition groups formed during
the Haidalla presidency. Through the agreement with Mauritania,
Morocco sought to tighten its control over the Western Sahara by
denying the Polisario one more avenue for infiltrating guerrillas
into the disputed territory.
Relations between Morocco and Mauritania continued to improve
through 1986, reflecting President Taya's pragmatic, if unstated,
view that only a Moroccan victory over the Polisario would end
the guerrilla war in the Western Sahara. Taya made his first
visit to Morocco in October 1985 (prior to visits to Algeria and
Tunisia) in the wake of Moroccan claims that Polisario guerrillas
were again traversing Mauritanian territory. The completion of a
sixth berm just north of Mauritania's crucial rail link along the
border with the Western Sahara, between Nouadhibou and the iron
ore mines, complicated relations between Mauritania and Morocco.
Polisario guerrillas in mid-1987 had to traverse Mauritanian
territory to enter the Western Sahara, a situation that invited
Morocco's accusations of Mauritanian complicity. Moreover, any
engagements near the sixth berm would threaten to spill over into
Mauritania and jeopardize the rail link.
Data as of June 1988
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