Kenya plans to hold talks with Somalia's embattled Islamic leaders in a bid to end escalating fighting with Ethiopian forces backing government, said diplomats on Wednesday. The Aethiops are actually accomplishing something. I'm not sure how helpful more jaw-jaw's gonna be, other than to maybe pull the Islamist back from the brink of dissolution.
The talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday "will seek ways to urgently end the conflict", said a diplomat, requesting to remain anonymous.
Killing all the Islamists would do just that.
The diplomat said that the Islamic courts leadership has confirmed participation.
A week ago they were too ferocious for talks. They were jumping up and down and waving guns and making faces and declaring jihad.
Asked if Ethiopia and the Somali government would participate in the talks, the diplomat said: "We will deal with only those whom we can manage."
Kinda hard to hold talks when you're not one of the participants in the festivities, isn't it?
On Tuesday, the Kenyan government urged Ethiopia to halt military operations against Somali Islamist forces, warning that that violence could complicate, instead of solve, the problem in Somalia.
That's one of those diplostatements that makes no sense on its face, but when you examine it more deeply you discover that it's totally nonsensical.
Kenya, which mediated the convoluted peace talks that ended in the creation of the Somali interim government in 2004, faces the prospects of receiving additional Somali refugees should the situation escalate in the lawless African nation. About 160 000 Somali refugees, who fled the 15-year conflict in Somalia, are currently hosted by Kenya.