The Arab League, which comprises 22 member states, including Somalia, is meeting this Sunday on an extraordinary basis to analyze a response to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an independent state, a step they classify as a “dangerous precedent” and “threat to peace”.
The meeting, at the level of permanent representatives of the member states of the pan-Arab organization, should also reject Israeli recognitionwhich, according to Arab politicians and analysts, is part of a Israel’s attempt to find territory to displace the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip.
The meeting was called after the Foreign Ministers of around 20 Arab and Islamic countries “categorically” condemned, in a joint statement, the recognition of Somaliland by Israel, stressing that it is “a region located in the Federal Republic of Somalia” and not an independent State.
The note, released by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warns of “the serious repercussions of this unprecedented action for peace and security in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region”, as well as its effects on international peace and security, accusing Israel of demonstrating “a clear and total disregard for international law”.
Not communicated, the signatories also “categorically” reject any link between this decision and plans to displace the Palestinian people outside their territory, considering this possibility unacceptable “in form and content”.
The document is signed by the heads of diplomacy of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Palestine, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which brings together 57 States.
The statement was issued after Israel officially recognized, on Friday, Somaliland as an “independent and sovereign state”, as announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to a statement issued by his office, the decision is “in the spirit of the Abraham Accords”, promoted on the initiative of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, during his first term, which allowed the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries from 2020 onwards.
These agreements were signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, with American mediation.
A Somaliland, a British protectorate until 1960, unilaterally declared the independence of Somalia in 1991, after the fall of the Mohamed Siad Barre regime, but is not recognized by the international community, despite having its own Constitution, currency and government..
In recent decades, several attempts at dialogue between Somalia and Somaliland on the status of the region have been launched, without concrete results.
A Somalia has lived in a situation of instability and conflict since 1991, marked by the absence of an effective central power and the actions of Islamist militias, such as the Al Shabab group, and local leaders who hold military and political power..
