Mauritania gives Israeli embassy staff 48 hours to leave the country

[ 06/03/2009 - 07:10 PM ]

NOUAKCHOTT, (PIC)--

The Mauritanian authorities have given the staff at the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott 48 hours to leave the country. Mauritania is one of three Arab states that have diplomatic ties with Israel. The other two are Egypt and Jordan.

Eyewitnesses said that the Mauritanian police guarding the embassy started to remove the roadblocks around it and that the embassy staff have indeed started leaving it with their suit cases.

A Mauritanian source said that this step was expected after General Muhammad Weld Abdel Aziz, chairman of the military council ruling the country, announced in January a freezing of relations with Israel in protest of Israeli atrocious war on the Gaza Strip.

General Abdel Aziz had announced the closure of the Mauritanian embassy in Tel Aviv on 10 February 2009 and announced at the time that relations between his country and Israel were no more stressing that the Mauritanian embassy in Tel Aviv was totally closed and all its staff returned to Mauritania.

During the Israeli aggression on Gaza there was much popular pressure on Muslim and Arab governments who have diplomatic relations with Israel to sever such relations, Mauritania was no exception, as it witnessed daily protests of citizens who demanded that the government severs its relations with the Zionist entity.

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