Aideed visits Sanaa to initiate a Yemeni reconciliation

The chief of the Somali National Alliance, Hussein Aideed, left Addis Ababa for Sanaa after a visit that lasted more than three weeks in which he held interviews with Ethiopian officials topped by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Sources close to Aideed said that "the visit achieved positive results in the cooperation in many fields that reflect on hastening the process of Somali reconciliation and easing the tensions among Aideed and the leaders of other Somali factions that are followers of Ethiopia."

The same sources said, "Aideed held preliminary meetings with some of the factions' leaders opposing him under the auspice of Ethiopia and that Aideed agreed with the Ethiopia on establishing a permanent coordination committee and opening a bureau for the communications in Makadishu and another in Addis Ababa."

The sources did not excluded that Yemen will host a preliminary meeting for releasing a Yemeni initiative that was presented by Sanaa to Somali faction leaders. This initiative was approved by countries belonging to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, especially Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Yemen is one of the Arab states assigned by the Arab League to find out a prompt solution for the Somali crisis following the peace accords finalized in Cairo between the leaders of the warring factions on December 22, 1997.