MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somalia’s Islamic leader wants the Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia to be part of Somalia, he said in a radio interview, reviving the idea of a “Greater Somalia,” which caused tensions in the 1970s and was a cause of the war with Ethiopia.

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts, told Shabelle Radio in a live call-in interview late Friday that his group will work to unite Somali peoples, but he did not say how they proposed to achieve what he referred to as “Greater Somalia.”

This is the first time that Aweys has spoken about expanding the influence of the Islamic courts outside Somalia since his group seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, in June and has since been consolidating its control of most of southern Somalia.

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