US envoy for mediation between Eritrea, Ethiopia
Eritrea-Ethiopia, Politics, 7/23/1999

The UN Security Council on Wednesday night welcomed the preliminary positive signals issued by Eritrea and Ethiopia toward proposals advocated by the Organization of the African Unity, which calls for ending the war between the two countries.

Malaysia's representative at the UN, Hashemi Agham, who is the current President of the UN Security Council, said that members of the Security Council expressed their hopes that the responses shown by the two countries will be an important step to finding a solution to the conflict between the two countries.

He added that members of the UN Security Council called on the governments of the two countries to sign a peace agreement already agreed upon by the two countries last week during the meeting of the OAU in its 35th summit meeting in Algiers.

Meanwhile, the US decided on Wednesday to send its special envoy, Tony Lake, former advisor for the national security to US President Bill Clinton, to East Africa in order to mediate to end the war between the two countries.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Lake will meet with the leaders of the two countries and the president of the OAU. He called on the two countries to carry out ideas proposed by the OAU in its recent meeting in Algeria to establish peace in the region.

Earlier this month, Eritrea and Ethiopia accepted the OAU peace plan, which includes a new round of mediation and the withdrawal of the two sides to their positions before the beginning of the conflict on May 6, 1998.

Ethiopia had announced that it will continue its war with Eritrea which erupted 14 months ago and accused Asmara of being not serious towards the peace talks. In a statement released late Wednesday night, the Ethiopian government said it will continue fighting with Eritrea because it is convinced that Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is also determined to do the same.

Previous Stories:
  Ethiopia plays down OAU progress in reaching peace with Eritrea   (7/16/1999)
  African draft for solving the Ethiopian - Eritrean conflict   (7/15/1999)
  Eritrea stresses readiness to sign Libyan initiative to settle conflict with Ethiopia   (7/13/1999)

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