Security Council grapples with draft resolution

UN Security Council members had yet to reach agreement on a resolution on the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict and were considering a US-sponsored draft calling for an arms embargo on both Ethiopia and Eritrea. Russia has opposed the draft resolution. Meanwhile, in a letter to the Council received on 12 May, Ethiopia asked: “Don’t we have a legitimate right ... as a victim of aggression, to ask the Security Council to condemn Eritrea’s act of aggression against Ethiopia and receive the sympathy of the Council?

Even at this late stage, the Security Council can discharge its responsibility which it has failed to carry out over two years”. The letter, signed by Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, accused the Council of encouraging Eritrea by failing to make it withdraw from the disputed territory. It said “our experience over the last two years gives us little confidence that we can get, as a victim of aggression, a fair hearing from the Security Council”. Anti-UN demonstrations, focusing particularly on the role of the US and Britain, have been held in Addis Ababa, Tigray, Dire Dawa and the Somali Region, Ethiopia’s state media reported.