Herman Cohen says U.S., Ethiopia should lead efforts to lift UN embargo on Eritrea

ESAT News (November, 14, 2017)

The United States and Ethiopia should jointly sponsor a Security Council resolution to lift arms embargo imposed on Eritrea in 2009, according to a former U.S Ambassador for Africa and a former Assistant Secretary of State.

“In view of UN report clearing #Eritrea of all charges related to al-Shebab, US and #Ethiopia should jointly sponsor Security Council resolution to lift sanctions,” Herman Cohen tweeted on Monday.

The UN imposed the arms embargo on Eritrea, accusing the young East African nation of aiding Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.

But a UN team of experts have recently found that there was no evidence that Eritrea supported Al-Shabaab and recommended that the Security Council lift the embargo.

“Yet, the UNSC continues to maintain the sanctions regime imposed on Eritrea that was originally concocted by Washington in order to eviscerate Eritrea’s legal and moral case and deflect attention from Ethiopia’s flagrant violation of international law,” says Eritrean Minister of Information Yemane G. Meskel in a tweet.

“The sanctions on Eritrea were imposed in December 2009 under trumped up charges of ‘support to Al Shabaab in Somalia’. That this allegation had no basis in law and fact was known to the principal architects of the resolution as well as to vast members of the UN system,” G. Meskel says in one of a series of tweets.

“Given that the Monitoring Group has been unable to find conclusive evidence of Eritrean support for Al-Shabaab in Somalia for four consecutive mandates, the Group recommends that the Security Council consider disassociating the sanction regimes for Eritrea and Somalia,” the UN team of experts on Eritrea and Somalia said in a document submitted to the Security Council.