Tripoli ARIA in English – 1626 GMT

The president of Somalia, Mohamed Siad Barre, has called on France to rant independence to the Somali Coast (Djibouti).

In an interview with the Libyan newspaper Al-Fajr Al-Jadid (New Dawn), published here today, the Somali president was quoted as stating: “It is strange that France claims to be a friend of Arabs and simultaneously continues the occupation of Arab lands.”

In the course of the interview, President Barre referred to the American propaganda and American claims of existence of Soviet military bases in Somalia and asserted that the U.S. campaign was aimed at convincing the Congress to earmark funds to establish a U.S. base in the Indian Ocean, at misleading the world public opinion, dividing the Arab homeland and [words indistinct] dividing Africa after its victories over imperialism.

President Barre emphasized that the occupation of Palestine and its surrounding areas was the main issue for all Arabs and that the issue could not be solved without guaranteeing the rights of the Palestinian people.

“The unity of attitudes of Arab countries confronting the Zionist enemy is a fast necessity to confront imperialistic and Zionist plots,” President Barre said.

Regarding Arab-African cooperation, President Barre asserted that many steps had been adopted in this respect and referred to meetings in Cairo last month of foreign ministers of Arab and African countries to elaborate the bases of Arab-African cooperation. He expressed the hope that an Arab-Africa summit conference would be held to approve the final form of the draft for cooperation “in order to create an Arab-African economic bloc with its own weight in the field of world economy.”

The Somali president also emphasized that the Libyan Arab Republic (LAR) had fulfilled her obligations towards the Somali people during its serious crisis because of drought. He pointed out that the cooperation between the LAR and Somalia had been embodied in many joint economic projects, such as the establishment of the Somali-Libyan Bank for Industrial and Agricultural Development, an agricultural corporation and commercial fleet.

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