Excerpt from document summary
(C) On August 21 Ba Samba Mamadou, the Deputy Director for
American and Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA), called on the Embassy to disavow a recent press report
suggesting that Libyan leader Muammar Qadafi had offered to
off-set Israeli assistance to Mauritania provided General
Abdel Aziz agreed to severe diplomatic relations with Israel.

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Content
C O N F I D E N T I A L NOUAKCHOTT 000449

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2018
TAGS: PREF, PGOV, MR, IS
SUBJECT: MFA SAYS RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL WILL REMAIN
INTACT

REF: NOUAKCHOTT 443

Classified By: Ambassador Mark M. Boulware for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.(C) On August 21 Ba Samba Mamadou, the Deputy Director for
American and Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA), called on the Embassy to disavow a recent press report
suggesting that Libyan leader Muammar Qadafi had offered to
off-set Israeli assistance to Mauritania provided General
Abdel Aziz agreed to severe diplomatic relations with Israel.
The report, carried by the local Arabic language newspaper
Al-Akhbar, was attributed to an anonymous source within the
MFA and relayed a supposed conversation between Qadhafi and
High State Council (HCE) member General Ghazawni (Ref. A).

2.(C) Ba indicated that he was acting on orders directly from
Gen. Aziz to reassure the U.S. that the Al-Akhbar report was
unfounded and that Gen. Aziz had no intention of severing
relations with Israel. Ba said that in his personal opinion,
respect for diplomatic relations with Israel was ingrained
within the Mauritanian military. He also said that President
Abdallahi was under a lot of pressure from Muslim groups to
revisit Mauritania's traditional relationship with Israel and
the military, and Gen. Aziz in particular, was better placed
to serve as a guardian for Mauritania's ties to Israel.

3.(C) Comment: The Mauritanians -- under either Abdallahi or
Aziz -- continue to see the Isreali relationship as perhaps
THE most important U.S. foreign policy concern in Mauritania.
On several occasions Abdallahi promised to refer the
question of diplomatic relations with Israeli to the National
Assembly for a vote, but never actually followed through.
After reading the Al-Akhbar article on August 20, the Embassy
asked Ba if there was any substance to the report. Ba
referred the query to his superiors and received a response,
within 24 hours, apparently directly from General Aziz along
with orders to deliver the message to the Embassy
immediately. The junta is likely to try to use the
relationship as a card to get the U.S. to ease its opposition
to the coup.
Boulware