President optimistic about talks in Nairobi

A spokesman for the president of the Somali Transitional National Government (TNG) confirmed on Tuesday that President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan would be arriving in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday to attend peace talks called by Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. Abdirahman Dinari, the TNG's director of information, told IRIN that Abdiqassim was looking forward to the opportunities the talks presented, coming as they did in the immediate aftermath of the collapse to in a no-confidence vote on Sunday of former Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galayr's TNG. According to the Somali National Charter, the president now has 30 days to appoint a new prime minister. A regional analyst told IRIN he expected Abdiqassim to use the opportunity of the appointment and the talks in Nairobi to persuade opponents of his regime to join the government instead. Dinari told IRIN that the void left by the dismissal of Galayr presented those opposed to the TNG with a great opportunity "to fully participate in the formation of the new one". He said that, for his part, Abdiqassim would welcome the inclusion of opposition figures in a new government. Abdiqassim will be accompanied to Nairobi by a nine-member delegation, which will include the acting chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission and Abdiqadir Muhammad Adan Zope, a highly respected Rahanweyn elder. Abdiqassim will be hoping that the faction leaders he is due to meet will want to follow the example of another member of his delegation, Ali Mahdi Muhammad, a former warlord turned government ally, now that a new government has to be formed. A Kenyan official told IRIN that southern faction leaders under the umbrella of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) had been invited, but he declined to comment on which of these leaders would be attending. Analysts said moderate elements within the SRRC were likely to attend, but expressed doubt that hardliners would join them. Husayn Aydid, the current chairman of the SRRC, told IRIN that, whereas he welcomed Moi's latest peace initiative and thanked him for the invitation, he would not be attending the Nairobi talks. Aydid reiterated his claim that the TNG were all members of the Somalia-based Al-Ittihad al-Islami group, which some analysts suspect of involvement in global terrorism, and insisted that any solution to the Somali crisis must be arrived at under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. Asked if he would consider accepting Abdiqassim's olive branch and join a new government, Aydid said the TNG was a threat to the whole region and that he "would never join a terrorist government".