{"id":1258,"date":"2011-11-07T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2011\/11\/07\/eritrea-eritrean-government-protests\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:41:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:41:17","slug":"eritrea-eritrean-government-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2011\/11\/07\/eritrea-eritrean-government-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"ERITREA: Eritrean Government protests against Kenya threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">Eritrea has protested at the threats by Kenya to review ties, intensifying the diplomatic row between the two countries ahead of a much-anticipated meeting of their foreign ministers.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">A statement from the Eritrean foreign ministry dated November 5 described as &#8220;regrettable&#8221; Kenya\u2019s implied warning that Nairobi will view the alleged arming of Al-Shabaab by Asmara in a very serious light.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">Foreign minister Moses Wetangula\u2019s warning followed last week\u2019s reports that three planes loaded with weapons for the militia landed in Baidoa, an Al-Shabaab stronghold. Reports said the arms came from Eritrea, but Asmara vehemently denied it.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">As a result, the Eritrean foreign ministry has released a statement protesting Mr Wetangula\u2019s remarks. \u201cThe government of Eritrea finds extremely regrettable the remarks attributable to the foreign minister of Kenya, Moses Wetangula, regarding the fabricated story of Eritrean arms shipments to Al Shabaab in Somalia,\u201d the statement notes. <\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe comments were unfortunate particularly in light of the expected visit of the Eritrean foreign minister to Kenya,\u201d it added.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">Mr Wetangula declined to comment on the statement, only stating that he was looking forward to the visit by his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh Mohammed.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">The statement from Asmara also noted that the visit by the foreign minister would \u201cnot only clear any misunderstanding but (also) enhance the relationship between the two friendly countries.\u201d The itinerary of the Eritrean minister remained fuzzy on Monday with even the ambassador to Kenya Beyene Russom reporting that he had no information.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\u201cHe will definitely come but I don\u2019t have the details of his itinerary,\u201d said Mr Russom. According to the envoy, the foreign minister\u2019s travel plans have been hampered by the few flights plying the Nairobi-Asmara route.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">The Eritrean national carrier Nasair flies to Nairobi on Mondays and Fridays only. The Red Sea state has denied accusation that it is arming the Somali insurgents and reiterated the same in the latest protest letter.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\u201cEritrea had on Wednesday replied to the sensational and ill-motivated allegations stating categorically that they were false and baseless. Eritrea had also affirmed that it could not and would not send arms to Al-Shabaab as it firmly believes that there could be no military solution to the problem of Somalia and given Al-Shabaab\u2019s well-known antipathy towards what it calls a \u2018secular Eritrean state\u2019,\u201d the statement added.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0cm 0.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\"><em>SOURCE: Standard newspaper<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eritrea has protested at the threats by Kenya to review ties, intensifying the diplomatic row&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4105,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}