Egypt Sharpens its Talons towards Somalia‏

[NASSIR]

Hopefully, Egypt's tangible support to Somalia in times of great need will be reciprocated in the future, but currently the Government of Egypt has taken a back seat.

 

Egypt Sharpens its Talons towards Somalia‏

 

By Abdalla Hirad

 

November 23, 2007

 

Samir Husni is considered the top gun, among the diplomats, for the Republic of Egypt and its gizmo, the League of Arab states. A former Foreign Minister of Egypt has always been the Secretary-General of the league of Arab States, since its inception. The current one, Omro Musa, is not an exception. So much so, that the policy of the League of Arab States, as an organization, has usually, remained the same as the foreign policy of Egypt. It explains why Ambassador Husni visited Saudi Arabia, last week—to conduct discussions with the Saudi authorities in relation to the current painful days of Somalia, as carried by the international media.

 

It is not surprising that the Egyptian controlled Secretariat of the Arab league would send its delegation to Saudi Arabia, given that, first, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdallah has, earlier, invited dignitaries and elders from Somalia to Mecca, culminating the Reconciliation Congress held in Mogadishu from July 15th to August 30th, 2007. Second, Egypt feels alienated from Somali affairs as evidenced by a statement by the Foreign Minister of Egypt, earlier on an occasion of the Meeting of the Contact Group for Somalia—a group of countries, including European and Africans, led by the USA.

 

Saudi Arabia happens to be the current chair of the Arab League countries for this period. The visit follows the statement of the Foreign Minister of Egypt in which he poured crocodile’s tears on the situation of Somalia—as regards the deaths and injuries as well as the dislocation of Somalis from Mogadishu. By the same statement, the Minister had called Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia. Ali Abdallah Saleh, The President of the Yemen Republic, who happened to be in Cairo the same week, had responded in words to the effect of: that he supports the decisions of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. He would, ideally, have opposed, if Ethiopia had attacked Somalia with hostile intentions; but then it was the legal government of Somalia which invited it to support it against the threatening Islamists, he said. He continued that he could not support the opposition and ignore the government in Somalia. The TFG is the legal government in Somalia and is member of the UN, the league of Arab States and the African Union among others. He said many governments have oppositions, and he could not side with the opposition and oppose the government.

 

It is not the first time the government of Egypt has opposed a Somali initiative or taken sides in the Somali affairs in the recent past, since the collapse of the government in 1991. For example, the same Samir Husni had opposed the intervention of Ethiopia in the beginning, until the President, Husni Mubarak, himself, had intervened to say that the TFG had invited the Ethiopian troops. One wonders what has changed the President’s position towards Somalia! “Somaliland”, Puntland under the leadership of Abdullahi Yusuf, other regions and the TFG are all averted to Egypt—that accounts to the greater part of the divided country.

 

Somalis has always had a soft spot towards Egypt. For example, Abdulqadir Sultan Abdullahi Sultan Diriye, the prince, pet-named as dhabbeeye, had written in A-nahda news paper, of Aden, Yemen, that he would provide 10,000 men to Egypt to fight the then new Israel in 1948, speaking on the voice of Somalis. At that time, Somalia was divided, and under colonization, by European Powers including Britain. Another example is that the Government of Somalia had provided assistance to Egypt in the 1967 war with Israel in the form of canned fish from the Laskoreh Fish Factory.

 

Egypt has always intervened in Somali affairs on the grounds that Somalia was a sister, African and Arab country. However, the interest of Egypt in Somalia has always run deeper than that, with respect to Somalia. It zeroes on the fact that it is threatened by Ethiopia as far as the Nile flow is concerned. Egypt needs that a pro-Egyptian government is necessarily formed in Mogadishu—certainly with difficult relations with Ethiopia. Now that Ethiopia is supporting the TFG, a role which Egypt has failed to fulfill, as a friend of Somalia—as it claims—the government in Somalia is far from that which would please Egypt. For Somalis, the important thing is that an effective Somali government is first formed before it starts to take sides in the regional interests.

 

Although the TFG is finally a product of IGAD, and therefore, provides an example of African solution in relation to the Somali question—as recommended by President Clinton of the USA in 193—Ethiopia, as a neighboring African country is among a few, if not the only government in the region, which ventured to take the difficult role of supporting the new government of Somalia militarily and diplomatically. Having said that, it is not as if Ethiopia has no interests in Somalia. I am sure it does. But it fares better than Egypt in this regard, which obviously requires a Muslim State, piercing like a thorn, on the side of Christian- run Ethiopia. Egypt, it seems, by its foreign policy towards Somalia, has placed itself as good as Eritrea’s in form and process. Like Eritrea, Egypt is opposed to the assistance Somalia is getting from Ethiopia, because it is opposed to Ethiopia, given the seemingly eternal interests it has shapes around the Nile water.

 

 

Abdalla Hirad

 

Mhirad@aol.com