Eritrea: Ethiopan rejection of peace deal arrangements "tantamount to a declaration of war"

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry said today that the Ethiopian government's rejection of the technical arrangements for implementation of the Organization of African Unity's peace plan is "tantamount to a declaration of war."

The Eritreans accused the Ethiopians of having never accepted the Framework agreement, although the Ethiopian government said it had. It said the Ethiopian government "could not possibly accept the peaceful resolution of the conflict through the demarcation of the boundary as it knows full well that it has no legal basis for its territorial 'claims.'"

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry called for a strong condemnation of "the TPLF's [the Ethiopian government's] declaration of war against Eritrea;" pressure in Ethiopia to "accept and implement in good faith the OAU peace package that has been endorsed by the international community;" and for "punitive measures as there may be" against Ethiopia.