Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
With regard to the first question, about levers that can be used to compel cooperation on the part of Eritrea and Ethiopia, certainly the record with regard to the implementation of the decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission suggests that there are few levers indeed. The Secretary General of the United Nations, in a report dated January 23, conveyed the conclusion of the EEBC that the parties had made no progress towards the implementation of the delineation decision announced by the commission in 2002.
That's quite an extraordinary situation. We're in the odd situation now that the United Nations Security Council yesterday or the day before issued a statement to the press decrying the lack of cooperation by Eritrea with the UN peace support operation that straddles the border, a peace support operation that no longer has access to fuel in Eritrea, that has had the composition of its force influenced by Eritrea, and that has declared that now the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General have demanded cooperation by Eritrea with UNMEE with the threat of withdrawing it, and that's quite an extraordinary circumstance.
With regard to watching briefs, there is a sense now, with the new government headed by Nur Hassan Hussein, that the time has come to give the transitional federal government support. Certainly that is the message that the UN special envoy is conveying. But the government took office only in November. This is an extremely new development. I think countries that participate in the work of the international contact group have taken notice of that message from Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. We will have to see whether there is continued progress, but the message from Ould-Abdallah is that this is now finally the time to provide support.