Mauritania's new US friendship group fuels anger amid Israel's war on Gaza

In Mauritania, a newly launched parliamentary friendship group between Nouakchott and the United States has ignited outrage in the Northwest African nation, where opposition sees it as a betrayal of Palestine amid Washington's continued support for Israel's war on Gaza.

The group, intended to bolster bilateral ties and foster the exchange of legislative expertise, was formally launched on 22 July in a ceremony attended by government officials and the US chargé d'affaires in Nouakchott.

The announcement came on the heels of a controversial meeting between Mauritania's president Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani and US President Donald Trump during a scaled-down US-Africa summit held last month in Washington.

Trump, who returned to office earlier this year, met with leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, and Mauritania in what many across Africa saw as a display of condescension.

During the meeting, the Mauritanian president was interrupted by Trump mid-sentence, as he began speaking about the country's mineral wealth.

"Maybe we have to go faster," Trump said abruptly, instructing other African leaders to only say their name and country, in a clip that widely circulated online and was condemned by populations around the African continent as humiliating and emblematic of how Washington perceives African leaders.

The meeting was followed by unconfirmed reports that Trump's administration is seeking to arrange a meeting between Mauritania's president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss a possible normalisation deal.

The Mauritanian ambassador in Washington dismissed the reports as "fake news." Nonetheless, the reports have touched a nerve across a country where support for Palestine runs deep and where anti-American sentiment has increased since the start of Israel's Gaza war in 2023.

Now, the formation of the American-Mauritanian parliamentary friendship group is further fuelling public anger toward the ruling elite.

Critics say the timing is especially insensitive, as Washington continues to provide political and military support to Israel during its ongoing genocide and systematic starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. 

"It is shocking and dangerous to speak of a friendship with the United States while children in Gaza are being bombed and starved with American weapons," said opposition lawmaker Mortada Ould Tfeil, who called for the immediate suspension of the group's activities.

The Student Initiative Against Zionist Penetration, a prominent grassroots organisation that has helped lead pro-Gaza demonstrations in Mauritania, denounced the group as "a deviation from the will of the Mauritanian people" and "an unacceptable act of complicity with the United States, the primary sponsor of Israel's genocidal war."

The US has provided Israel at least $17.9 billion in military aid since 7 October 2023.

In a statement published Wednesday, the student union called on participating MPs to withdraw immediately, warning that continued cooperation with Washington would amount to "legitimising war criminals" and "the project of Zionist expansion."

Mauritania, a conservative Muslim country of approximately 4.5 million people, has long been an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.

While it briefly established formal diplomatic ties with Israel in the late 1990s, it severed them in 2009 in protest of Israel's military operation in Gaza.

The Mauritania-US Parliamentary Friendship Group was first established in 2020. Traditionally, its activities are relaunched following each parliamentary election, the most recent having taken place in May 2023.

No official explanation has been given for the delay in resuming its work since then.

However, its reactivation this month has reignited concerns over growing political alignment with Washington.

At the launch event, Mauritanian lawmakers and US diplomats spoke of shared interests in democratic governance, education, health, and development.

The group's head, MP Zein El Abidine Ahmed El Hadi, framed the initiative as a vehicle to deepen institutional collaboration between the two countries.

However, outside parliament, opposition to any ties with Washington continues to mount.

Protesters have gathered regularly outside the US Embassy in Nouakchott in recent months, demanding the severing of diplomatic ties with Washington and criminalising normalisation with Israel. 

"We demand binding legislation that criminalises political, parliamentary, or cultural normalisation with murderers and criminals," stated Ahmed Taleb Bouna, president of the Student Initiative Against Zionist Penetration.