Eritrea looks forward to better relations with US Obama

November 6, 2008 (ASMARA) — President Isaias Afeworki congratulated the US president-elect Barack Obama for his election and expressed hope that he would change his country’s policy in the Horn of Africa.

Relations between the outgoing American administration and Eritrea have shifted form one of the closest ally in the Horn under Clinton administration to a declared enemy in the region under the Bush administration.

In a massage dated of 5 November the Eritrean president conveyed “ardent hope that US policy in our region will indeed change under your excellency’s presidency to pursue a constructive path to advance the causes of regional peace, justice and legality.”

Eritrea accuses the outgoing administration of backing its arch-foe Ethiopia in a long-running border dispute. While Washington accuses of backing Islamist groups in Somalia, an allegation denied by the small African nation.

Last year, the US State Department included Eritrea on its list of “the world’s most systematic human rights violators.” Further, the US placed an arms ban on Eritrea in October after allegations that it was supporting “terrorists” in Somalia, feared to be a future haven for extremist groups.

And when Eritrea banned the United States Agency for International Development from operating in the country in 2007 and also imposed curbs on US diplomats, Washington closed Eritrea’s consulate in Oakland, California.

(ST)