US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has pressed regional power Algeria to support an Africa-led military intervention in northern Mali, said a senior US official.
Mrs Clinton’s one-day visit yesterday comes amid mounting international pressure on Algeria over the crisis in Mali. A military coup there in March was followed by a revolt that has meant Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants – some linked to al-Qaeda – have seized control of the northern two-thirds of the country.
The senior US official said after the talks that Mrs Clinton argued that counter-terror efforts in Mali could not wait for a political resolution to Mali’s problems: “The secretary underscored . . . that it is very clear that a political process and our counter-terrorism efforts in Mali need to work in parallel.”
He added: “We have an awful lot at stake here . . . And there’s a strong recognition that Algeria has to be a central part of the solution.”
Algeria shares a 2,000km border with Mali and sees itself as the major regional power.