Naming of new government postponed

Newly elected Somali president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, has postponed announcing his government while he consolidates international support and attempts to initiate dialogue with regional faction leaders. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that Abdikassim was expected to meet the King of Saudia, Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz Al Sau’d, on Monday, which would be “very important” for financial backing for the new government. He is then scheduled to travel to Ethiopia, in his attempt to consolidate international support and open a dialogue with faction leaders opposed to his appointment. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the new Somali president hoped to “take advantage of the close links between Ethiopia and the Somaliland and Puntland leaders” in his efforts to form a government of national unity. Meanwhile, faction leaders meeting in Nairobi have demanded prominent government positions and are organising behind the leader of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, Abdullahi Yusuf, Somali political sources told IRIN. One of the main bargaining cards is the post of prime minister, said the source. The eventual appointment of a prime minister “could be the point at which the process might start to unravel”, sparking off clan and sub-clan resentments, diplomatic sources told IRIN. Although scores of newly elected parliamentarians went with Abdiqasim Salad on his first visit to Mogadishu and Baidoa, only a small entourage accompanied him to the UN Millennium Conference in New York. They included Abdullahi Ahmad Adow (his main contender in the Djibouti-hosted elections, a former finance minister and ambassador to the US); Ali Mahdi Muhammad (businessman and former faction leader in Mogadishu north, whose election as interim president in 1991 sparked fighting in the capital); Fatumah Muhammad Hasan (the permanent mission representative in New York; Isma’il Mahmud Hurreh (former minister in the Somaliland government of Abd al-Rahman Tur); Hasan Muhammad Nur “Shatiguduud” (military leader of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army, backed by Ethiopia); Muhammad Uthman Umar (appointed as chef du cabinet, a former ambassador to India); and, Muhammad Mahmud Alasow (former minister of agriculture under MUhammad Siyad Barreh). Notably absent from the “inner circle” is Ali Khalif Galeyr, initially considered a favourite for the post of prime minister, the source pointed out.