\n<\/p>\n
Most United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members have slammed Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland at a meeting convened in response to the move, which several countries said may also have serious implications for Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The United States was the only member of the 15-member body not to condemn Israel\u2019s formal recognition of the breakaway region of Somalia at the emergency meeting in New York City on Monday, although it said its own position on Somaliland had not changed.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Addressing the UNSC, Somalia\u2019s UN ambassador, Abu Bakr Dahir Osman, implored members to firmly reject Israel\u2019s \u201cact of aggression\u201d, which he said not only threatened to fragment Somalia but also to destabilise the wider Horn of Africa and the Red Sea regions.<\/p>\n In particular, Osman said that Somalia was concerned the move could be aimed at advancing Israel\u2019s plans to forcibly \u201crelocate the Palestinian population from Gaza to the northwestern region of Somalia\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis utter disdain for law and morality must be stopped now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The emergency meeting was called after Israel last week became the first and only country to\u00a0recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said that \u201c14 of the 15 council members condemned Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland\u201d, while the US \u201cdefended Israel\u2019s action but stopped short of following Israel\u2019s lead\u201d.<\/p>\n Tammy Bruce, the US deputy representative to the UN, told the council that \u201cIsrael has the same right to establish diplomatic relations as any other sovereign state\u201d.<\/p>\n However, Bruce added, the US had \u201cno announcement to make regarding US recognition of Somaliland, and there has been no change in American policy\u201d.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s deputy ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Miller, told the council that Israel\u2019s decision was \u201cnot a hostile step toward Somalia, nor does it preclude future dialogue between the parties\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cRecognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity,\u201d Miller claimed.<\/p>\n Many other countries expressed concerns about Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland, including the implications for Palestinians, in statements presented to the UNSC.<\/p>\n Speaking on behalf of the 22-member Arab League, its UN envoy, Maged Abdelfattah Abdelaziz, said the group rejected \u201cany measures arising from this illegitimate recognition aimed at facilitating forced displacement of the Palestinian people, or exploiting northern Somali ports to establish military bases\u201d.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s deputy UN ambassador, Muhammad Usman Iqbal Jadoon, said at the meeting that Israel\u2019s \u201cunlawful recognition of [the] Somaliland region of Somalia is deeply troubling\u201d, considering it was made \u201cagainst the backdrop of Israel\u2019s previous references to Somaliland of the Federal Republic of Somalia as a destination for the deportation of Palestinian people, especially from Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n China and the United Kingdom were among the permanent UNSC members to reject the move, with China\u2019s UN envoy, Sun Lei, saying his country \u201copposes any act to split\u201d Somalia\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n \u201cNo country should aid and abet separatist forces in other countries to further their own geopolitical interests,\u201d Sun Lei said.<\/p>\n Some non-members of the UNSC also requested to speak, including South Africa, whose UN envoy, Mathu Joyini, said that her country \u201creaffirmed\u201d Somalia\u2019s \u201csovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d in line with international law, the UN Charter and the constitutive act of the African Union.<\/p>\n In addition to defending Israel\u2019s decision, US envoy Bruce compared the move to recognise Somaliland with Palestine, which has been recognised by more than 150 of the UN\u2019s member states.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral countries, including members of this council, have unilaterally recognised a non-existent Palestinian state, yet no emergency meeting has been convened,\u201d Bruce said, criticising what she described as the UNSC\u2019s \u201cdouble standards\u201d.<\/p>\n However, Slovenia\u2019s UN ambassador, Samuel Zbogar, rejected the comparison, saying, \u201cPalestine is not part of any state. It is illegally occupied territory\u2026 Palestine is also an observer state in this organisation [the UN].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomaliland, on the other hand, is a part of a UN member state, and recognising it goes against\u2026 the UN Charter,\u201d Zbogar added.<\/p>\n The self-declared Republic of Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991, after a civil war under military leader Siad Barre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Most United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members have slammed Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland at a meeting convened in response to the move, which several countries said may also have serious implications for Palestinians in Gaza. The United States was the only member of the 15-member body not to condemn Israel\u2019s formal recognition of the breakaway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Comparison with Palestinian recognition<\/h2>\n
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