MOGADISHU, Somalia, July 27 (UPI) -- The senior U.N. envoy to Somalia has reiterated his call for the Executive Council of Islamic Courts to resume peace talks with the transitional government.
In a letter sent Thursday, François Lonsény Fall, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia, appealed to the court's chairman, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, to send a delegation to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for talks with the government, which ended last month.
Fall also assured Sheikh Ahmed that the U.N. is committed to pursuing all avenues for peace and reconciliation through dialogue in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since President Muhammad Siad Barre's regime was toppled in 1991.
Earlier this week Fall traveled briefly to Somalia, where he met Sheikh Ahmed in the capital Mogadishu and held talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in Baidoa. The president agreed to send a delegation to Khartoum Aug. 3 to resume talks, while Sheikh Ahmed said a decision would be made after consultations with his delegation.
In June, militias associated with the Executive Council of the Islamic Courts drove warlords out of Mogadishu to take control of the city. At the June 22 meeting, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire and promised to refrain from any provocations that could lead to an escalation of the conflict.
