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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Dakar
11 April 2007
The newly-elected president of Mauritania, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, says he wants an open debate about the Islamic country's almost decade-old diplomatic ties with Israel. Mauritania is one of few countries with such ties that belong to the Arab League, an organization of about 20 mostly Arabic states. Phuong Tran has more from VOA's West African Bureau in Dakar.
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi |
Former President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1999.
It is widely seen in this Arab-populated West African country that the Taya-brokered relationship with Israel was a way to appease1 the United States, following the 1990's Persian Gulf2 War.
Mauritanian leaders supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, during his invasion of neighboring oil-rich Kuwait in 1991.
"In order to avoid being blamed by the United States, it was strategic for him [former President Taya] to establish the diplomatic relationship," Moustapha Toure says.
Moustapha Toure is spokesman of the Association of Mauritanian Refugees in Senegal. He is one of thousands of black Mauritanians pushed out in the early 1990's, when ethnic3 and regional tensions flared4.
Hundreds died fleeing the violence.
For Toure, the real issue that requires open debate is national reconciliation5, in a country long divided by color and ethnicity.
"They [Taya administration] wanted to hide what they [had] done against the black people in Mauritania between 1989 and 1992," Toure says. The real problem for us is to build our national unity6."
Human rights lawyer Mohamed Ould Yarba says the Mauritanian government has used its relationship with Israel to appease the World Bank, when the country has had money problems.
Although the World Bank is an international lending institution, it is often seen as controlled by Americans.
Its presidents are citizens of the largest shareholder7 country -- the United States.
He says Mauritanians have the impression that, each time the government needed to hide how weak the economy was, it would make a deal with powerful countries, to hide unflattering economic data from the World Bank.
As of last June, the World Bank has pledged more than one billion dollars of assistance to Mauritania for what it says are much-needed poverty-reduction programs.
Yarba says he wants President Abdallahi to make sure any continued ties with Israel are based on real diplomacy8 and peace politics and not what he calls cover-up attempts.
Israel-based analyst9 Meir Javedanfar says the outcome of a public debate is not the final word on Mauritanian-Israeli relations.
"This is something that could change in the future, should relations between Israelis and the Palestinian authority improve," Javedanfar says.
President Abdallahi has said his decision on Israel will depend, in part, on the outcome of talks between the leaders of Israel and Palestine on the issue of land for Palestinians.
1 appease | |
v.安抚,缓和,平息,满足 | |
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2 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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3 ethnic | |
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的 | |
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4 Flared | |
adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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5 reconciliation | |
n.和解,和谐,一致 | |
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6 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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7 shareholder | |
n.股东,股票持有人 | |
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8 diplomacy | |
n.外交;外交手腕,交际手腕 | |
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9 analyst | |
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家 | |
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