Malian FM says parties are closer to an agreement

Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulay Diop said the different Malian parties “are not far from an agreement,” calling those parties to do a “maximum” effort to bring peace process in Mali to a successful conclusion.

“It is the last 100 meters and each of us should make a maximum effort to bring the (peace) process to a successful conclusion,” Diop said at a meeting in Bamako attended by the representatives of the diplomatic corpses and international organizations accredited to Mali.

Mentioning the fourth round of talks held last November, in Algiers, between the Malian government and the political-military groups in the country’s north, Mali’s foreign ministers said he made it possible for the parties to held “fundamental” discussions, deemed “useful.”

“There has been a franc and direct discussion among the parties.”

“The (Malian) government does not reject the document as for us it is a sound basis for negotiation,” Diop stressed.