At a meeting of regional countries in Mauritania, Niger said the rebels' gains should be reversed before any talks, but Algeria warned that military intervention risked further complicating the situation.
The rebels, bolstered by guns and fighters from Libya's war last year, routed Malian troops, in disarray after a March 22 coup, to carve out a zone the size of France and declare an independent state of "Azawad".
Unless a lot of countries decide that a secession in Africa that also allows al Qaeda an opportunity to operate in the region, the French will probably need to send in a regiment to lead a counter-attack of whoever is willing to join them. Trying to turn the odds and sods of a whole bunch of ECOWAS countries with differing aims into a cohesive military force capable of defeating the Tuareg rebels and their al Qaeda allies who already routed the Mali army seems unlikely to me at this point.
Will French President Sarkozy decide that his likely defeat (as the images of French fighters rushing to halt Khaddafi's tanks south of Benghazi a year ago fade) in the upcoming elections could use a foreign victory of French arms? Not that it must work out that way, but if he thinks it will that could tip the balance to intervention.
