Congressman Calls for US Military Partnership with Eritrea

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

By Salem Solomon | VOA

A Republican congressman says he believes it is time for the U.S. to reach out to Eritrea and forge a partnership to fight terrorism.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would encourage the U.S. secretary of defense to negotiate with his Eritrean counterpart to cooperate on the war on terror, security in the Red Sea region, confronting Iranian proxies in Yemen and other U.S. security priorities.

The amendment was rejected, but Rohrabacher said he may try to push for cooperation with either a future amendment or standalone bill.

"I think it's time for us to reach out to Eritrea and take them up on some of their offers, and do things that would be good for us and good for the order of the world in a sense they would be opposing radical Islamic terrorists," Rohrabacher told VOA in an interview this week.

Human rights abuses and authoritarian rule have long made Eritrea an international pariah. The U.S. currently has no military-to-military cooperation with the country and, although there is an embassy in the capital, Asmara, there is no U.S. ambassador.

Eritrea and many members of its ruling regime are subject to U.N. sanctions, imposed for an unresolved border dispute with Djibouti and the country's alleged support for Islamist militants in Somalia.

But Rohrabacher believes U.S. policy needs to change. He says it is colored by Eritrea's larger, more powerful neighbor and longtime enemy, Ethiopia.

"We should not be just hanging our hats on the side of someone like the Ethiopians and just letting them direct what our policy is," he said. "Eritrea is in a very strategic location, and it is working with people that I think are very responsible people in terms of the war against terrorists."

Eritrea hosts a military base operated by the United Arab Emirates at the port city of Assab, from which the UAE conducts missions in its war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

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