Algeria: Hillary Clinton's visit postponed

The visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Algeria later this month has been postponed until early March during her tour of the Maghreb region.

According to Echorouk's Djamel Lalami, she will not play a mediating role between Algeria and Morocco regarding the opening of the currently closed border although it is widely known that there is US pressure on both countries to move towards a normalisation of relations.

According to the same source, it is expected that Clinton will discuss a number of highly topical issues with Algeria, namely:

> the Arab Spring and the wind of change blowing through the region
arms trafficking from Libya
> the Islamists coming to power in some countries of the region
the Western Sahara issue and the Syrian crisis
> Algeria's political reforms and the forthcoming parliamentary election and
> military co-operation and counter-terrorism in the African Sahel.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates