The United States is pleased to co-sponsor this resolution on Somalia with all of our African colleagues on the Security Council.
In Somalia, the security situation is deteriorating and tensions continue to run high, which is of deep concern to the United States.
Like many other Member States, we are concerned about the prospects for a wider regional conflict. However, the United States views the deployment of a regional force to Somalia as a key element in preventing conflict.
Through the International Somalia Contact Group, the United States is committed to working with our international partners to encourage dialogue among Somali parties. Despite these efforts and the June 22 Khartoum Declaration between the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Union of Islamic Courts, the situation in Somalia has not improved.
Although both parties have violated the terms of the Khartoum Declaration, the U IC has done so through concrete military expansion. It has sought to further destabilize the Horn of Africa region through irredentist claims on the Somali-populated regions of neighboring states and support for insurgent groups in Ethiopia.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union have put forth a proposal aimed at helping to restore stability in Somalia through deployment of a security, training, and protection mission. The primary purpose of this deployment is to help stabilize Somalia by providing security in Baidoa, and protection and training for the TFIs, not to engage in offensive actions against the U IC.
The United States strongly believes that a sustainable solution in Somalia should be based on credible dialogue between the TFIs and the UIC, and we continue to work with our African and other partners toward that end. The continued military expansion by the UIC, however, has not helped to promote dialogue and, in fact, has created the need for deployment of a regional force to stabilize the situation inside Somalia.
The United States supports this regional proposal and views IGASOM deployment as a critical element to help resume credible dialogue between the TFIs and UIC. It will also help to create the conditions for Ethiopian and Eritrean disengagement from Somalia.
The deployment of IGASOM is only one of the critical elements, however, of what must be a comprehensive plan to reach a durable solution in Somalia.
A political settlement is needed, and dialogue toward it must resume. A security protocol, including a verifiable ceasefire and military disengagement, is the next step toward a longer-term solution.
The international community must be united in its efforts to bring the parties back to this dialogue.
The United States welcomes the recommendations of the United Nations Somalia Monitoring Group regarding ways to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the United Nations' arms embargo on Somalia.
We continue to work with our partners in the Security Council on these and many other issues as we seek a solution to the Somalia crisis.
# 382(06)
