By NNN-KUNA,
Cairo : Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa has ruled out the possibility of deploying Arab peacekeeping forces in Somalia without consensus among all political forces in the Arab country.
“Reconciliation among all national forces in Somalia is a prerequisite for contribution by willing parties to reconstruction of Somalia,” Moussa said in a press release following his meeting here with visiting chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) Sharif Sheikh Ahmad Sunday.
Sheikh Mohammad, who leads an ARS delegation, is pushing for an Arab peacekeeping force to be the nucleus for a multinational force and a replacement for the Ethiopian forces in his country.
“The ongoing conflict in Somalia discourages the Arab countries and the Arab League from playing a more active role there,” Moussa pointed out.
“The Arab League is ready to lend its hand to the Somalis impartially. But the problem of Somalia can only be solved by the Somalis themselves.
“Stability is a prerequisite of reconstruction of Somalia,” Moussa added.
The ARS is an organisation created in September 2007 when Somali Islamists and opposition leaders meeting in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, joined forces to fight the occupation of Somalia by the Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government forces.