TwinCities.com - Tensions between Eritrea, Ethiopia on the rise
Western diplomats suspect that Ethiopia, the Goliath of the two opponents, is sorely tempted to deliver a killer blow against its smaller rival before the Bush administration, a close Ethiopian ally, leaves office at the beginning of 2009. Last year, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and, with clandestine Pentagon help, toppled an emerging Islamist movement accused of sheltering al-Qaida operatives.
And though tiny Eritrea has more to risk in going to war, experts say its deepening isolation from the world doesn't preclude its launching a pre-emptive strike. One bleak scenario: an assault on contested territory in November, when an exasperated boundary commission set up by the U.N. packs up after years of Ethiopian stonewalling, and declares the two countries' border officially mapped.
"I don't want to be here if it happens," said Tsegaye Redaye, a sad-eyed merchant in Badme whose tea shop's construction included expended tank shells from the previous war.
"But I guess there won't be anywhere to run to," he added, squinting out at the gaunt plains that both governments call their own. "The war will be everywhere."
Western diplomats suspect that Ethiopia, the Goliath of the two opponents, is sorely tempted to deliver a killer blow against its smaller rival before the Bush administration, a close Ethiopian ally, leaves office at the beginning of 2009. Last year, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and, with clandestine Pentagon help, toppled an emerging Islamist movement accused of sheltering al-Qaida operatives.
And though tiny Eritrea has more to risk in going to war, experts say its deepening isolation from the world doesn't preclude its launching a pre-emptive strike. One bleak scenario: an assault on contested territory in November, when an exasperated boundary commission set up by the U.N. packs up after years of Ethiopian stonewalling, and declares the two countries' border officially mapped.
"I don't want to be here if it happens," said Tsegaye Redaye, a sad-eyed merchant in Badme whose tea shop's construction included expended tank shells from the previous war.
"But I guess there won't be anywhere to run to," he added, squinting out at the gaunt plains that both governments call their own. "The war will be everywhere."
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