aided by new weaponry it had captured from the warlords – most of which had been bought with U.S. funds. During the summer of 2006, the ICU was allegedly being given support by Eritrea, Djibouti, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. First deployment of Ethiopian forces On 17 June, ICU head Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed would claim that 300 Ethiopian troops had entered the country through the border town of Dolow in Gedo region that morning in support of the TFG, and that Ethiopian forces had also been probing Somali border towns. He would go on to threaten to fight Ethiopian troops if they continued intervening and further stated, “We want the whole world to know what’s going on. The United States is encouraging Ethiopia to take over the area. Ethiopia has crossed our borders and are heading for us.” The Ethiopian government would deny the deployment of its forces in Somalia and countered that the ICU was marching towards its borders. The TNG would also deny the deployment claiming the ICU was creating a pretext to assault Baidoa. Local Somali officials and residents in the region reported about 50 Ethiopian armored vehicles had passed through the border town of Dolow and pushed 50 km inland near the town of Luuq. On June 24, Hassan Dahir Aweys would be named head of the ICUs newly formed 88 member parliament, the Council of the Islamic Courts. Khartoum ICU/TFG conference The TFG, overshadowed by the recent achievements of the ICU, was in dire need of the popularity and military capacity of the courts and the ICU in turn was in dire need of international recognition along with the political and administrative skills required to run a government that the TFG possessed. The obvious deficiencies of both organizations led many to perceive a possible complimentary ICU/TFG amalgamation. In light of this, the Arab League arranged a conference between the ICU and TFG in June 2006 to discuss merger proposals in Khartoum, Sudan. The talk initially began positively but rapidly collapsed over the issue of Ethiopian forces deployed to Somalia at the request of the TFG. The ICU insisted that the presence of Ethiopian forces was the priority and should be dealt with first, while the TFG insisted that an agreement on a unified government had to be made before removing the Ethiopian presence. Neither side was willing to compromise on the issue