Somalia urges UN to lift 20 year old arms embargo

Tehran, February 15, 2013: Citing the needs to strengthen peace to the strife torn nation, Somalia’s foreign minister Fawzia Y H Adam urged the UN Security Council to lift the 20-year-old arms embargo on the country.

The minister said the countries armed forces can fight off al-Qaeda linked militants if the UN lifts the prohibition of arm and the government will institute measures to ensure that armaments do not fall into the wrong hands.

The minister addressed the council on Thursday amid allegations that Iran and Yemen have supplied weapons to the Somali militant group al-Shabab.

Iran rejected those allegations as an "absurd fabrication."

A report by a UN-appointed committee monitoring sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea report links Iran and Yemen to the supply of weapons to al-Shabab, according to a UN diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.

Iran's UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee, in a letter to the Security Council said the allegations were part of a "malicious campaign."

He said the monitoring group put forward "unfounded allegations and strange fabrications" without first informing the Iranian government and said the contents were leaked "for propaganda purposes."

Somalia is trying to establish its first functional government after two decades of chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Siad Barre and then turned on one another.

Al-Shabab rebels have been pushed out of the cities of southern and central Somalia by African Union forces, but they are not yet defeated.