Friday, May 08, 2009
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP)--Eritrea Friday denied reports it was hosting Iranian forces at its Assab port and blamed Israel for being behind what it termed "disinformation campaigns."
"Neither Israel nor Iran have bases in Eritrea. More importantly, Eritrea's long-standing policy is not to provide military bases to any power," said Yemane Guebremeskel, director in President Issias Afeworki's office.
"So there are no foreign military bases in Eritrea. Iran cannot deploy troops in Assab if it doesn't have a military base," Yemane told AFP.
In recent weeks some foreign media have reported that Tehran has deployed troops at Eritrea's strategic Assab port near the Bab El-Mandeb strait that heads out into the Gulf of Aden.
More than 10% of world oil shipments transit through that maritime route.
Yemane termed the reports as "persistent disinformation campaigns by Israeli intelligence officials."
"Why would Iran deploy troops in Assab? This is a ridiculous story."
Eritrea's Foreign Ministry also denounced the reports.
"The main sources of these relentless vilification campaigns against Eritrea are invariably the key western intelligence sources that have refined the art of disinformation," it said in a statement.
It added that Eritrea and Iran had friendly ties.
"But this is not different from the warm diplomatic ties that Eritrea enjoys with all other countries in the Middle East."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-05-09 1504GMT
