Over the weekend the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, raised the eyebrows of regional and international leaders, not to mention Eritreans and Ethiopians worldwide. To the Ethiopian Parliament, “to proceed [with] full border demarcation […] Eritrea, the options are two – either the regime changes its existing ill-ideologies or must be ousted.”1 Further, he continues, “We believe in dialogue, we have actually knocked on the door many times and they haven’t responded.”2
Tag: Ethiopia
The United States, in its diplomatic regime in the Horn of Africa, has failed to align its interests with its actions. Although the Horn of Africa is filled with many diverse cultures and societies, a variety of different state-constructions, in the end, every state hopes to improve the lives of its people.
I thought today I would take the time to respond to some comments from another blog that I happened upon. The post that I had commented on was about Eritrea and Ethiopia’s less than neighborly relations for the past decade. I thought that part of the original post were ill-informed, as were some of the comments, however, because I believe in not being too judgmental, engage in the conversation. Impressively the original author responded to my comments with more depth than I expected (a wonderful surprise), however, I disagreed further with his statements. Careful not to start a blogging war I decided it would be best to create a far more in depth post here because the information will hopefully be instructive to a much larger audience.
Recently the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs at the US State Department, Johnnie Carson, has said that if Eritrea wants better relations with the United States it must cease its actions in Somalia. Although the tone is slightly different from the previous Administration, fundamentally the message is the same.