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The United States has appealed to Ethiopia and Eritrea to accept UN efforts to establish a buffer zone in the disputed border region, news agencies reported on 16 April. Disagreements over the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) were hindering the deployment of 4,200 UN peacekeepers and endangering the peace process, AFP quoted US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as saying.
Boucher said in a statement on Monday that the United States supported the efforts of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, to deploy UN peacekeepers in the zone. "Further delay [in establishing the buffer zone] will complicate the operation of the UN peacekeeping mission and raise concerns in the international community about the commitment of the parties to peace," he said.
The creation of a 25 km-wide TSZ was part of an internationally brokered peace deal signed in December to end the two-year border war.
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