afrol News, 11 July - The government of Eritrea has dispelled allegations that it has been involved in "good-faith territorial dispute" with the neighbouring Djibouti, insisting that it "harbours no territorial ambitions, or claims whatsoever on Djibouti."

Asmara authorities also denied overstepping their country's territory to occupy an inch of sovereign land of what it called "neighbouring and sisterly state."

"While these are the facts of the matter," Eritrea's Foreign Affairs Ministry told the United Nations Security Council, "the government of Djibouti has sadly been engaged in an unprovoked, intensive and hostile campaign against Eritrea under the prodding of external forces for the last two months.

This campaign is underpinned by ulterior motives that have nothing to do with a putative border problem between the two countries. To exacerbate and dramatize the situation, however, the Government of Djibouti was even cajoled to launch a reckless attack on our territorial units on June 10 last month."

Asmara said the "transparent game, principally labeled and packaged in Washington, consists of fomenting an artificial crisis to precipitate the conditions for regional meddling and complication." It said such a scenario has put the UN Security Council and other regional bodies under pressure to "swiftly pass unwarranted statements and resolutions."

Eritrean government is disgusted with the evidence of the irony of the whole affairs, scolding the UN Council for "shirking its responsibilities" for the past years to accommodate Ethiopia's occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories, including the town of Badame, in violation of the UN Charter and Algiers Peace Agreement.

The Horn of African country that had clashed with Ethiopia and Djibouti and accused of being an ally of the ousted Islamists regime in Somalia said since April 2009, also accused Ethiopia of occupying Mount Musa Ali, which includes Djiboutian and Eritrean territories where it deploys "long-range offensive weapons."

Asmara said while these "flagrant acts of aggression are ignored," the UN body has now been asked to send "fact-finding missions" and launch "diplomatic shuttles for a non-existent problem."

"Eritrea wishes to underline that it cannot possibly entertain an exogenous agenda when the real problem has, and continues to be, ignored and pushed to the back-burner. The principal causes of potential regional destabilization are clear indeed and Eritrea again requests the UN Security Council to channel its efforts to address the real problems," Eritrean authorities insisted.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories