Adoption of UN Security Council Resolution on Ethiopia and Eritrea

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

The United Nations Security Council on November 23 unanimously adopted Resolution 1640 on Ethiopian-Eritrean settlement.

Thus, the Council has sent both parties a serious political signal regarding the inadmissibility of fanning tensions in the Ethiopian-Eritrean border area.

The resolution, in particular, notes the Security Council's concern over the situation evolving in the area of the Temporary Security Zone that is fraught with the parties' sliding into armed confrontation. Both the parties in conflict are expected to fulfill their earlier assumed obligations in full.

The Council urges the parties to exercise maximum restraint and expects that Ethiopia and Eritrea will, within 30 days, take measures aimed at defusing the tense situation, inter alia for the purpose of resuming the full-scale activities of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea in accordance with its mandate.

Russia as the President of the UN Security Council took the most active part in agreeing the text of the resolution among the Council members and will continue closely watching the developments in this hotbed of conflict in Africa.

November 24, 2005