Ansar al-Dine to hold talks in Nouakchott

Mauritanian sources have revealed that a delegation from the al-Qaeda-allied Tuareg militant group Ansar al-Dine (Partisans of religion) are set to arrive in Nouakchott to hold discussions with Mauritanian officials. The delegation will arrive at the capital after a visit to Burkina Faso, led by an African mediator liaising between Tuareg rebels and the Mali government. Thousands of Azawadi refugees fled to Mauritania after the violence in Mali .The Mauritanian army clashed with al-Qaeda on the eastern Mali border on several occasions. Mauritania is expected to ask the delegation to determine its final position on its  alliance with al-Qaeda as it did during its visit to Burkina Faso and meeting President Blaise Compaore . Ansar al-Dine, which controls north Mali along with other armed movements, said it was ready to negotiate with President Compaore as mediator, who asked it to sever relations with al-Qaeda. Sheikh Agh Wessy, a spokesman for Ansar al-Dine, said: "We accept the mediation of Burkina Faso, because we decided to take the path of dialogue.” After the March 22 coup in Bamako, northern Mali fell to the insurgent National Movement for Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA) "Tuareg rebellion" and the Islamist Ansar al-Dine group. Ansar al-Dine, led by the former leader of the Tuareg, Iyad Agh Ghali, seeks to impose Sharia law ( Islamic law) on Mali as a whole. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, Djibril Bassole, said the Ansar al-Dine delegation was ready to search for a negotiated political solution to the crisis mediated by Compaore. He added: "We will work in the coming days with the delegation on a comprehensive agenda to get out of the crisis," speaking of "a necessity for harmony between the Malian Tuareg armed movements and the general population in order to reach a final solution to the problem of North Mali. " Coinciding with Ansar al-Dine's arrival to Mauritania, media sources stated that the Mauritanian army lost one of its soldiers after clashes with an al-Qaeda unit. Mauritanian forces confiscated 300 kilograms of explosives and explosive devices and arrested an al-Qaeda’s guide, a Malian man called Boukhn Solm, while a Mauritanian soldier was killed and six soldiers were wounded in clashes.