Mogadishu faction leader Hussein Muhammad Aydid does not recognise Abdiqasim Salad
Hasan as a national president, but only a group leader, one of his aides said
on Monday. "Aydid
and other faction leaders in Libya agreed with Salad to make peace as a group
leader without recognising him as a legitimate leader of Somalia," aide Issa Mohamed
Siad was quoted as saying, in Mogadishu, by AFP.
Libyan state media earlier this week said Aydid and Abdiqasim had reached a memorandum
of understanding, and Abdiqasim was reported as saying Aydid had agreed to support
the new government. The
Mogadishu spokesman told AFP that there would be a peace conference held in Somalia
soon. "An all-inclusive national peace conference will be held in Somalia soon
to form a government," he said. Issa
Mohamed Siad is the acting chairman of Aydid's United Somali Congress/Somali National
Alliance faction. Despite Aydid's "back-peddling", he is seen by other opposing
factions to have "crossed over to the new government", diplomatic sources told
IRIN. "As far
as the other faction leaders are concerned, he's crossed sides - which makes it
difficult to see who he is going to get support and backing from," said the source.
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