Foreign
Minister Amr Moussa has reiterated Egypt's support for the
peace and national reconciliation process in Somalia, the
government-run newspaper Al Gomhuria reported on Thursday.
Egypt
will continue backing an initiative proposed by Djibouti and
its efforts aimed at helping restore peace, stability and
unity in Somalia, Moussa said late Wednesday, in response
to a reporter's question about Cairo's position on the Somali
issue.
Djiboutian
officials have accused Egyptian Ambassador to Somalia Saleh
Amin of disrupting Djibouti's peace efforts by dissuading
Somali faction leaders, including Hussein Aideed, head of
a group of the influential Somali National Alliance, from
taking part in a Somali reconciliation conference currently
held in Djibouti, the paper said in a report on Tuesday.
Somali
delegations at the conference organized a special meeting
to protest against the alleged activities of Amin and called
on the Egyptian government to recall him.
The delegations
were astonished at the intervention by the Egyptian envoy
in the Somali peace process while Cairo has repeatedly expressed
keenness on supporting the peace talks, the report said.
Amin
has denied the accusation, saying that the charges were baseless,
the paper added. Somalia has been in division since Former
President Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Some 460
Somali representatives, including university professors, intellectuals,
writers and tribal leaders, opened the reconciliation conference
in Djibouti May 2 in a bid to select 225 members for the proposed
Interim National Council, which is designed to form a central
government.
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