• Requires the Secretary of State to submit a report within 180 days on al-Qaeda's expansion and illegal financing activities in Mali, including gold trafficking, informal taxation, and illicit trade networks
• The report must cover al-Qaeda's territorial influence, cross-border operations with Burkina Faso and Niger, recruitment pipelines, financing mechanisms, and existing sanctions against Mali entities
• The report must also include a U.S. diplomatic strategy for countering al-Qaeda influence in Mali, with proposed bilateral/multilateral initiatives and metrics for evaluating effectiveness

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