Three Baathist leaders detained in Mauritania

The national Baath Party in Mauritania ( not recognized officially) said that the police on Wednesday evening arrested three leaders of this pan Arab party which supports Iraq.

The Party assistant secretary general Muhammad Radi Weld Nanah said that the party's secretary general Muhammad Abdullah Weld Aya and the official responsible for contacts Muhammad Weld Arabi were arrested at their party's headquarters. He added "the police returned back to the party's headquarters and confiscated all document in it late Wednesday night.

The same source indicated that Khatiri Weld Taleb Jeddou, the minister and former secretary of the national Vanguards ( dissolved) party, was also arrested. Weld Nannah stressed that the police gave no information on the reasons behind these detention.

The national Baath party strongly denounced the arrest of the party's secretary general and called in a statement to "release him immediately without any condition." The Mauritanian police closed last year the headquarters of the Baath Party which represents the Mauritania Baathist movement which is similar to the views of the Iraqi Baath party.

The National Baath Party together with another movement have been active to lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq, has recently escalated its activities to stand against the war on Iraq and to denounce the invading forces against Iraq.

After the government of Mauritania was an ally of Iraq during the first Gulf war, it changed position and tried to be closer to the USA and therefore it severed relations with Baghdad and held diplomatic relations with Israel in October 1999 and dissolved the national Vanguards party ( which supports Iraq.)