Addis Ababa emphasises US mediation

Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada said this week that the US had a “paramount role” to play in helping to end the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war, Ethiopian television reported. Receiving the new US ambassador to Ethiopia, Tibor Nagy, Negasso said “aggression should and must not be rewarded and the US government has a paramount role to play in the efforts geared to resolve the border conflict,” AFP news agency reported. Both sides have accepted an OAU peace plan in principle, but Ethiopia has insisted on Eritrean “withdrawal from all occupied territory” before it can be implemented. Meanwhile senior Eritrean foreign affairs official, Tekeste Tesfamariam, said on Wednesday that Ethiopia was “holding the peace process hostage” by demanding withdrawal from disputed territories, including Zela Ambesa and Badme, prior to their demarcation. “If they wish to claim the territory, that is not a problem. Let them allow the process to proceed and see how demarcation will resolve the issue of claims. It is precisely because they wish to avoid demarcation that they now are demanding territories be declared Ethiopian before such a process occurs,” the official Erina news agency reported Tekeste as saying.