Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki warned Washington that its policies were leading the world on a ”dangerous path”, an official statement said on Monday.
Two days after Washington said it was considering adding Eritrea to its list of ”state sponsors of terrorism”, Issaias gave an angry two-hour interview broadcast late on Sunday on state television.
”Its strategy of monopoly and dominance through fomenting confrontation among peoples is leading the world to a dangerous path,” he said, according to an official English translation released on Monday by the Information Ministry.
”If the situation is at all to really change, US administration officials need to change their frame of thinking and put an end to their acts of adventurism, as well as weaving conspiracies to undermine our national interests,” Issaias added.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said on Friday the United States is considering adding Eritrea to its list of rogue states, which includes countries such as Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba.
Frazer said that the US administration — which last week ordered the closure of Eritrea’s consulate in California — agreed with a recent report by UN experts linking Eritrea to weapons and cash for militants in Somalia.
Eritrea denies that, but Issaias said that relations had worsened due to the ”situation in Somalia” connected with ”the Eritrean people’s steadfastness and resistance”.
He added that the US had become increasingly angry at ”the growing opposition of the Somali people” to Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu, which Issaias said were backed by Washington.
International concern is also growing at an unresolved border dispute with Ethiopia following their 1998 to 2000 bloody frontier war.
Eritrea blames Washington for Addis Ababa’s failure to implement a UN-appointed boundary commission ruling that followed a 2000 peace deal. — AFP
