Somaliland’s defence minister, Mohamed Yusuf Ali, said there is no Israeli military presence in the region and no negotiations over establishing an Israeli base there. In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Tel Aviv, he said Israel is training military and police forces in Somaliland, but dismissed reports of talks on a base as “rumours.”
The remarks came after Israel recently recognized Somaliland as an independent state, a move Somalia rejected last December as a “deliberate attack” on its sovereignty. Somalia’s authorities said yesterday they were deeply concerned by reports of Israeli contacts with the self-declared republic’s administration, bypassing the federal government in Mogadishu.
In a statement from Somalia’s foreign ministry, Mogadishu said it views any such cooperation as a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and constitutional order. The ministry said Somalia is a sovereign, internationally recognized state and that the federal government is the only legitimate authority for international relations. It warned that any political, diplomatic or other contact with Somaliland authorities that bypasses Mogadishu violates international law and has no legal or political force.
The ministry also said Somalia reserves the right to use “all diplomatic, legal and other legitimate and necessary means” to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Israel’s foreign ministry announced a day earlier that it had opened an embassy for Somaliland in Jerusalem, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi attending the ceremony. Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa by the strategic Gulf of Aden, declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but the UN and most countries still consider it part of Somalia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced Israeli recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign, independent state.
