The recently established UTDS opposition party in Tigray national regional state of Ethiopia says war is out of the question in its pursuit to restore Assab or any other ports for Ethiopia.  
 
The Union of Tigrians for Democracy and Sovereignty (UTDS) has become more outspoken recently in its attempt to erase its previous association with the ruling TPLF and gain support from dissidents in Tigray. One of their primary distinctions, they claim, is the question of Ethiopia’s outlet to the sea. 
  

The last few years, various opposition parties have blamed the ruling TPLF/EPRDF party for allegedly not caring about, what some believe is, Ethiopia’s natural and legal rights to the ports currently administered by Eritrea. Particularly, highlighting the unfavorable international ruling that rewarded Badme town to Eritrea seven years ago, the UTDS suggests Ethiopia should place Assab and other past territory disputes on the table during future negotiations.
 
The UTDS also believes the Ethio-Eritrea case is unique from other colonial boundaries in Africa since Eritrea was once federated with Ethiopia by UN decision and since the two have also been administered by Italy together for a brief period of occupation. UTDS chairman Gebru Asrat added that when Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II signed treaties with Italy, the Italians wrongly incorporated territories they did not administer into their Eritrean colonial maps.
  

MIXED REACTIONS
 

The reaction from the Ethiopian public towards the new UTDS opposition party has been mixed – mostly along political lines. The UTDS is similar to the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and other opposition parties due to its belief that there is no democracy and equality under the current leadership of EPRDF ruling party. UTDS also claims that the judiciary is not independent and press freedom is not adequate in Ethiopia. However, UTDS’s support for the current ethnic federalism system of EPRDF has deeply overshadowed its anti-EPRDF stances. 
 
Accordingly, some opposition supporters claim that UTDS and EPRDF are not different.
 

However, the opposition parties that are struggling for democracy in Ethiopia while supporting ethnic federalism have voiced full support for the UTDS. Several regional political parties, including in the Oromia and Somali regions share UTDS’s policy of strengthening ethnic federalism to achieve genuine decentralization and equality. While the less known ANDP said that UTDS gives an “alternative” for Tigray, the well-known OFDM opposition party stated that UTDS will “contribute to the democratization of Tigray.”  
 
Despite the diverse reactions in Ethiopia, UTDS appears confident in its quest for Assab port using peaceful and lawful ways which UTDS chairman Asrat claims was “the same lawful way Eritrea gained its independence and the same lawful way Assab will be restored to Ethiopia.”