From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat May 09 2009 - 03:28:12 EDT
Eritrea Denies Hosting Iranian Forces At Assab Port
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP)--Eritrea Friday denied reports it was
hosting Iranian forces at its Assab port and blamed Israel for being
behind what it termed "disinformation campaigns."
"Neither Israel nor Iran have bases in Eritrea. More importantly,
Eritrea's long-standing policy is not to provide military bases to any
power," said Yemane Guebremeskel, director in President Issias
Afeworki's office.
"So there are no foreign military bases in Eritrea. Iran cannot deploy
troops in Assab if it doesn't have a military base," Yemane told AFP.
In recent weeks some foreign media have reported that Tehran has
deployed troops at Eritrea's strategic Assab port near the Bab El-Mandeb
strait that heads out into the Gulf of Aden.
More than 10% of world oil shipments transit through that maritime
route.
Yemane termed the reports as "persistent disinformation campaigns by
Israeli intelligence officials."
"Why would Iran deploy troops in Assab? This is a ridiculous story."
Eritrea's Foreign Ministry also denounced the reports.
"The main sources of these relentless vilification campaigns against
Eritrea are invariably the key western intelligence sources that have
refined the art of disinformation," it said in a statement.
It added that Eritrea and Iran had friendly ties.
"But this is not different from the warm diplomatic ties that Eritrea
enjoys with all other countries in the Middle East."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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