The UK government on Monday said that it does not recognise the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, and reaffirmed its support for Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Last week, Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state.
Other countries have declined to do the same, including China on Monday.
Israel has defended its formal recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, but several countries at the United Nations questioned whether the move aimed to relocate Palestinians from Gaza or to establish military bases.
“It is not a hostile step toward Somalia, nor does it preclude future dialogue between the parties. Recognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity,” Israel’s Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Miller told the UN Security Council on Monday.
Israel’s recognition of Somaliland gives it a potential strategic partner countering Yemen’s Houthis, who during the Gaza war traded blows with Israel and whose attacks on vessels in the Red Sea have disrupted shipping there.
The 22-member Arab League, a regional organization of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa, rejects “any measures arising from this illegitimate recognition aimed at facilitating forced displacement of the Palestinian people or exploiting northern Somali ports to establish military bases,” Arab League UN Ambassador Maged Abdelfattah Abdelaziz told the council.
“Against the backdrop of Israel’s previous references to Somaliland of the Federal Republic of Somalia as a destination for the deportation of Palestinian people, especially from Gaza, its unlawful recognition of Somaliland region of Somalia is deeply troubling,” Pakistan’s Deputy UN Ambassador Muhammad Usman Iqbal Jadoon told the council.
Israel’s UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks or address any of them in its statement at the council meeting. In March, the foreign ministers of Somalia and Somaliland said they had not received any proposal to resettle Palestinians from Gaza.
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