Doha (SL-Times): Efforts by the President of the Arta faction, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, to hold an alternative peace conference inside Somalia got a new boost after he recently received funds to finance the project.
The 3 Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya have agreed to pay Mr. Hasan's beleaguered Transitional National Government their shares of a grand fund earmarked for Somalia by the last Beirut Arab Summit.
The bulk of the fund, which was estimated at around $ 400 Million, was supposed to be paid by the oil rich Gulf countries. But only Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya made actual disbursements for $15 Million, $3 Million and $2.5 Million, respectively, to the TNG, last year.
Leaders of the three countries agreed earlier this week to make more payments to Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, after he recently complained in public that Arab countries failed to honor the commitments they made during the Beirut Summit. Hasan who was speaking at an Arab Summit held earlier this week at Sharma Al-Sheikh, Egypt, threatened to quit his job unless Arab leaders started making good on their promises. As a result, Hasan has already been handed over a total sum of $30 Million dollars.
One of Abdiqasim Salad Hasan's TNG officials has disclosed while in Qatar, earlier in the week, that the TNG leader intends to hold an alternative peace conference in Mogadishu.
Most of the TNG delegates to the peace conference being held on Somalia in Nairobi decided to stay away from the talks together with representatives of half of the factions attending the meeting.
According to the TNG official, Abdiqasim Hasan who himself is not attending the Kenya talks, will use the money made available to him for instigating a boycott by the majority of delegates of the Nairobi reconciliation talks. He will also encourage the delegates to take part in a peace conference to be held in Mogadishu and financed by him.
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