Eritrea names new foreign minister

April 18, 2007 (ASMARA) — Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki on Wednesday named Osman Saleh as the country’s new foreign minister, a task that will see him handle ties with the world and southern rival Ethiopia.

The foreign ministry portfolio has been unoccupied since the death of Ali Said Abdella in August 2005.

“The president has assigned minister Osman Saleh to serve as the minister of foreign affairs,” Eritrean information minister Ali Abdu told AFP by phone. Saleh moves to the post from the education portfolio.

Osman takes over the ministry as the tiny Red Sea country is facing accusations of supporting Somali Islamist insurgents in battling joint Ethiopian and Somalia forces in the capital Mogadishu.

Asmara vehemently denies these claims, but insists that the presence of Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia will worsen the already-volatile security climate.

Osman will be tasked with handling relations with neighbouring Ethiopia, which have been uneasy since a bloody 1998-2000 war that claimed at least 70,000 lives.

An international boundary commission established at the end of the conflict awarded the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea. But Ethiopia, which rejects the boundary, said the commission was acting outside its mandate.

(AFP)