South African officials hailed another victory for their quiet diplomacy Friday, voicing confidence that a proposal by President Thabo Mbeki to allow a banned political leader to run for office in the Ivory Coast would be acceptable to all parties.
Mbeki, the African Union mediator, last week persuaded the Ivory Coast government and rebels to end hostilities, take steps to disarm their militias and prepare for elections.
Shunned by the rest of the world during the apartheid era, South Africa has emerged from isolation to become Africa's political powerhouse. Mbeki's policy of quiet diplomacy, which emphasizes dialogue and compromise, has gained him international respect and helped promote peace in countries like Sudan, Congo and Burundi.
"We are not scared of taking principled decisions," said Deputy Foreign Minister Essop Pahad.
In a letter made public Thursday Mbeki said that former Ivory Coast Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara should be eligible to stand in presidential elections despite a nationality clause that bars him because his mother's family comes from Burkino Faso.
"We believe it will be accepted by all the parties," Pasad said of the accord, voicing optimism that stability would return to the Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, which is now effectively split in two.
"It is yet another success story," Pahad told parliament. "I want to believe that our work in the African continent has made us one of the most respected countries on the African continent and in general."
Douglas Gibson, the chief whip of the opposition Democratic Alliance, disagreed.
"It appears that far too often South Africa's foreign policy furthers the interests or the prejudices of the ruling party, not the people of South Africa," he said. "This leads to immeasurable damage to our international standing, when, for example, we defend the undemocratic and tyrannical behavior of [Zimbabwean] President [Robert] Mugabe," he said.
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa would stick to its policy of gentle persuasion with its northern neighbor, pointing out that Mugabe's stand against white Zimbabweans has earned him "standing ovations from the masses of this country."
"If you look at Zimbabwe and Iraq you can't compare," she said. "You see which policy is working and which one is not."
"South Africa is not in the habit of telling people how to determine their future. It has a habit of helping its neighbors," she said.
The foreign minister vowed to step up efforts to ensure that Africa is better represented on the UN Security Council with at least two permanent seats and the right of veto.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS