/ 8 October 2008

Eritrea slams US over arms ban

Eritrea — in a government statement sent to Agence France-Presse on Wednesday — slammed the United States for imposing an arms ban over concerns that the Red Sea state was aiding terrorists in the region.

Washington announced the ban on Monday, accusing Asmara of supporting ”terrorist groups” in Somalia.

”This unwarranted measure is purely prompted by the frustration of the US administration with the misguided policies it has been pursuing in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Sudan,” the Eritrean Foreign Ministry said.

Washington has in the past threatened to add Eritrea to its list of rogue states, which includes countries such as Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba.

”US authorities could not substantiate the unfounded accusations they levelled against Eritrea in the past as a sponsor of terrorism. In the event, they have concocted this indirect ruse as a last-ditch effort to cover up their blunder,” the statement added.

Ties between the two have been frosty over the past few years, with Asmara accusing the US of backing arch-foe Ethiopia in its border dispute with Addis Ababa, and Washington arguing that the small African state was backing Islamist groups in the region, an allegation denied by Eritrea.

”In our region, groups and elements that the United States often dubs as terrorists are, in reality, those that Washington itself, and its surrogates in the Horn of Africa, employ for subversive activities,” it said.

Last year, Eritrea banned USAid from operating in the country and imposed curbs on US diplomats in the country. In response, Washington closed Eritrea’s consulate in Oakland, California. — Sapa-AFP