No one can say that Saudi Arabia does not try — and try again despite all the odds — to help sort out problems in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The meeting hosted in Jeddah, bringing together the Somali transitional government and the various tribal factions, is yet another Saudi attempt to bring peace to a troubled region. In this particular case, it could not have happened sooner. The possibility of a lasting settlement, so longed for by the overwhelming majority of Somalis, is within grasp but, as in Iraq, invasion and occupation have brought neither peace nor stability. Violence is on the rise between insurgents and the Ethiopian-backed government. As in Iraq again, the presence of an invading alien force is seriously resented and threatens to rob the transitional government of popular support. The country is at a crossroads. Either events could get much worse or there could be a settlement that, for once, sticks.
The agreement just signed in Jeddah and which Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah took a very personal interest in bringing to fruition provides the foundations of a new peaceful Somalia. It involves not only men such as President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and Parliament Speaker Adam Mohamed Nur but more crucially, in a country that is still largely tribal in its loyalties, a large number of clan leaders. All hope that the agreement will work. One of the reasons for believing that it can is the fact that it contains a plan to replace Ethiopian soldiers with a UN-backed force of Arab and African troops. The departure of the Ethiopians would not only remove a reason for rallying to the insurgents but it would also calm concerns in Ethiopia’s arch-enemy, Eritrea, about Somalia becoming an Ethiopian client state and thus enable Eritrea to end its support for the insurgents.
But the agreement will only work if the Somalis themselves make it work. For that reason, we can be under no illusions about what happens next, especially since the Islamist opposition, to which the insurgents are loosely linked, boycotted the conference. Its leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, does little for his credibility or his following either when he says that the meeting was not a serious effort to achieve Somali reconciliation. It was a very serious effort indeed. His boycott says everything about his own unwillingness to embrace reconciliation. There is great contrast between him and those who took part and who, unlike him, represent the majority of Somalis.
Saudi Arabia understands that no matter what it would like, it is up to those involved to make agreements work. We can be under no illusions about Somalia, but we hope and pray that the Somalis will make this latest one work and that no external powers will sabotage it. But even if it goes the way of earlier agreements and cease-fires, it will not stop Saudi Arabia working for peace in Somalia. It is, after all, a very close and important neighbor. We long for peace and justice there as much as we do in Palestine.
