WORLD CAPITALS — The international community has given a warm welcome to the just-minted Arab-sponsored agreement between the interim government in Somalia and the Union of Islamic Courts, now in control of large parts of the Horn of Africa country.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan hailed the agreement as a positive development, said a statement issued by his office and cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Annan, who is traveling back to New York from Europe, "urges the two parties to remain engaged in dialogue to promote peace and national reconciliation," added the statement.
The UN chief commends the Arab League for its mediation.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa told reporters late Thursday, June 22, that the interim government and the Islamic Courts have reached a peace agreement that recognizes "the legality of the transitional government and the presence of the alliance of Islamic tribunals."
It also calls for an "end to media and military campaigns ... the pursuit of dialogue without preconditions in the framework of mutual recognition" and "the trial war criminals," he said.
The two sides also agreed to resume talks aimed at resolving outstanding security disputes on July 15 in Khartoum.
Sudan, current chair of the Arab summit, invited the Somali delegations and called the Arab League meeting to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa nation.
Tensions have risen between the government and Islamic courts since the latter defeated the US-led warlord Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and seized full control of the capital Mogadishu on June.
Warlords had controlled the capital since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
After seizing Mogadishu, JIC fighters swiftly marched northwards, overrunning Jowhar and a string of other small outposts in Hiiraan region without heavy resistance.
The African country of 10 million has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice.
Good News
The African Union also welcomed the agreement.
"This is a crime," Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmad, who arrived in the scene shortly, told Al-Jazeera.
"The agreement is a very good news for the whole reconciliation and stabilization process of the country, now that they have decided to stop fighting against each other," the AU special envoy for Somalia, Mohamed Ali Foum, told the AFP.
He said the deal could herald a new era in stabilizing the war-shattered nation.
"It is a very good news because it means Mogadishu and Jowhar that are under the control of the Islamic courts may be open for monitoring," added Foum, referring to the capital and a major town held by the courts.
In Washington, the US State Department said the agreement is a positive first step toward ending fighting in the country.
"We believe that this is a positive first step in what will be a long process to bring security and stability to Somalia," Adam Ereli, the State Department's deputy spokesman, told reporters.
"This is a step that we welcome."
A source close to the Islamic Courts has told IslamOnline.net that the US embassy in Kenya had officially notified the courts of Washington's desire to enter into a dialogue to stabilize the country.
The source said a US delegation is expected to arrive soon in Mogadishu to tackle with the Islamic Courts leaders a host of issues that are a cause for concern to Washington.
US government officials and experts have said that secret funding by the CIA for the warlord alliance has backfired, empowering the same groups the Bush administration has sought to marginalize.
Reporter Killed
Celebrations of the new deal were marred Friday by the shooting dead of a Swedish reporter working for the BBC in the Somali capital while attending a demonstration against international intervention.
"An unknown gunman approached the reporter shot him from behind before feeling the scene in the ensuing confusion," said the correspondent of Al-Jazeera news channel on air.
"This is a crime," Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmad, who arrived in the scene shortly, told the Doha-based broadcaster.
He denied that his group was the organizer of the demonstration.
Ahmad blamed "foreign hands" for the grisly crime, recalling a similar killing of a foreign reporter in 2005.
BBC producer Kate Peyton was slain outside a hotel in Mogadishu on February 9, 2005.
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