Clinton presses Algeria to assist in possible military intervention in Mali

By Julian Pecquet - 10/29/12 02:52 PM ET

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Algeria's president on Monday to press Africa's largest country for military assistance as the United Nations weighs an African-led intervention for its southern neighbor, Mali.

Mali became the latest front in America's war on terror when radical Islamists took over the northern half of the country following a military coup in March. Some of them are affiliated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which may have been involved in last month's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The U.N. Security Council has since approved the concept of a West African-led military intervention, and the United States and other countries are looking to Algeria to provide military and counterterrorism expertise.

“A whole range of countries in the region really look to Algeria for leadership on this,” a senior State Department official said in a background briefing ahead of Clinton's trip. “Obviously, they’re not ceding sovereignty, but they know Algeria has unique capabilities that no one else in the region really has ... the strength of its military forces, its intelligence-gathering capability, all up and down the road on this stuff.”

Clinton told reporters traveling with her that she and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika spoke at length about Mali during their meeting, with Bouteflika raising concerns about creating further chaos in the vast desert Sahel region of northern Africa.

"We had an in-depth discussion of the region, particularly the situation in Mali," Clinton told reporters after the meeting. "I very much appreciated the President’s analysis, based on his long experience, as to the many complicated factors that have to be addressed to deal with the internal insecurity in Mali and the terrorist and drug trafficking threat that is posed to the region and beyond. And we have agreed to continue with in-depth expert discussions, to work together bilaterally and with the region – along with the United Nations, and the African Union, and ECOWAS (the Economic Community Of West African States) – to determine the most effective approaches that we should be taking."

As a sign of U.S. policymakers' increasing concern, Mali even made a surprise appearance during the third presidential debate last week.

“Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali, by al Qaeda-type individuals,” Mitt Romney said when asked if President Obama's foreign policy was “unraveling.” “With Mali now having North Mali taken over by al Qaeda, with Syria having Assad continuing to — or to kill — to murder his own people, this is a region in tumult. And of course Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon. We’ve got real gaps in the region.”