I can lead, and then General Vance will come in.
First, I'll give you the backdrop. A year ago, prior to the declaration of northern Mali as a separate Islamist state, one of the main Tuareg groups, the MNLA, had affiliated itself with al Qaeda and a few of the other groups. Immediately after the declaration of the north as an Islamist state, the Islamist extremist groups parted company with the MNLA, pushed them out of the cities, and took over. I'll deal with the MNLA in a second.
There are four main armed Islamist extremist groups or terrorist groups loosely associated with each other to varying degrees. There's al Qaeda in the Maghreb, listed as a terrorist entity by Canada and the UN. There's MUJWA, also known as MUJAO, which is the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. This is an AQIM spinoff, which also has an ideological aim to spread jihad across West Africa. There's Ansar Dine, which is a Tuareg-led salafist movement seeking to impose sharia across Mali, but we understand that faction is splintering right now. Then there is a group called Signataires par le sang established by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, which is again a splinter group. I want to make the point that this is very distinct from the Tuareg nationalist group, the MNLA, which seeks an independent homeland for the Tuareg, but which is primarily secular.
In terms of what's happened politically recently, it is very important. The MNLA came out on the weekend saying that they supported the French military intervention. Also, they have begun to say they want to come back to the table with the Malian government to seek reconciliation. From southern Mali, the president of Mali has clearly indicated two things: he's willing to sit down with the MNLA; and he and Islamic leaders and other members of the Malian population have also indicated that the other extremist groups are not welcome at the table, including Ansar Dine, which had been at a previous mediation effort about a year ago. It's an important split between the groups representing some of the Tuareg and the extremist groups; it's an important political signal to bring the political track together. A mediation effort has been supported by ECOWAS in Burkina Faso, and this will be key in moving forward to a reunification of the country.