The Egyptian capital hosted a meeting on Wednesday, March 6, between Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 161st session of the Arab League's Executive Council. «We discussed strengthening the distinguished cooperative relations between our two brother countries and the mechanisms to develop them, as well as issues of common interest», Ould Merzoug wrote on X. The meeting focused on ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields, according to a press release from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailing Bourita's activities in Cairo. This meeting comes amid Algeria's campaign to isolate Morocco from its Maghrebi neighbors. So far, Mauritania hasn't officially supported this effort. This is evidenced by their non-participation in the tripartite meeting held on March 3 in Algiers between the leaders of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, which focused on reviving the Maghreb Union without Morocco's involvement. Algeria has recently stepped up its efforts to influence Mauritania. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune held a phone call with his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Cheikh Ould El Ghazouani. The two presidents also met in person on Saturday in the Algerian capital, on the sidelines of a gas producers' summit. Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf also met with Ould Merzoug twice: on Tuesday, March 5, in Jeddah, and again on Wednesday, March 6, in Cairo. The President of Algeria's lower house of parliament, Brahim Boughali, has also been involved in this effort. He met with his Mauritanian counterpart, retired general Mohamed Ould Meguett, in Abidjan on Tuesday. Notably, the two men previously met in Algiers in January.
