Israel defended on Monday itsformal recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, but several countries at the UN questioned whether the move aimed to relocate Palestinians from Gaza or to establish military bases. Israel became the first country to recognise Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on Friday. The 22-member Arab League, a regional organisation of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa, rejected “any measures arising from the 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 UN Security 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 the 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.
US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza states: “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return.” Israel’s coalition government, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in its history, includes far-right politicians who advocate the annexation of Gaza and the West Bank and encouraging Palestinians to leave their homeland. Somalia’s UN ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman said council members Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone and Somalia “unequivocally reject any steps aimed at advancing the objective, including any attempt by Israel to relocate the Palestinian population from Gaza to the northwestern region of Somalia”. Somaliland has enjoyed effective autonomy, and relative peace and stability, since 1991 when Somalia descended into civil war, but the breakaway region has failed to receive recognition from any other country.
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“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 council.
In September several Western states, including France, Britain, Canada and Australia, announced they would recognise a Palestinian state, joining more than three-quarters of the 193 UN members who do so. Deputy US ambassador to the UN Tammy Bruce said: “The council’s persistent double standards and misdirection of focus distract from its mission of maintaining international peace and security.”
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