Israel Blazes a Trail to World Recognition of Somaliland’s Independence

Shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israel would become the first member of the United Nations to recognize Somaliland’s independence, South Sudan also recognized the country on the Horn of Africa. Will America follow suit?The Israeli premier announced the move during a phone call to Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa. He invited President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi for a Jerusalem visit, and Mr. Abdullahi said he hoped to arrive there “soon.” Mere hours later, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan announced his intention to also recognize Somaliland.Several African neighbors and Arab countries, as well as the European Union, conduct informal business and have other relations with Somaliland. Yet until Friday the only country to have full diplomatic status with Hargeisa was the Republic of China. Taiwan, though, is not recognized by the UN. Its main rival, Communist China, as well as Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and others oppose Somaliland’s separation from Somalia. Mr. Netanyahu made his announcement on the eve of his Monday arrival at Mar-a-Lago for a summit with President Trump. “It might be a trial balloon, an American attempt to assess the global reaction to its own recognition of Somaliland,” an independent Israeli researcher of Islam in Africa, Moshe Tardiman, tells the Sun. America is contemplating recognition of Somaliland in exchange for access to a Horn of Africa base and port at Berbera. That United Arab Emirates-operated port is situated strategically at a busy maritime spot linking the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis have interrupted commercial traffic there for more than two years. “Somaliland has emerged as a critical security and diplomatic partner for the United States, helping America advance our national security interests in the Horn of Africa and beyond,” Senator Ted Cruz wrote in August. He and others in Congress are advocating for American recognition of the country. Somaliland is standing up to “mounting pressure from adversaries, due in no small part to its role as a partner for the United States and our allies,” Mr. Cruz wrote. “The Chinese Communist Party is using economic and diplomatic coercion to punish Somaliland for its support for Taiwan.” A thriving Muslim country that conducts regular competitive elections, Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 in the aftermath of a bloody civil war. Prior to independence, Somalia was an Italian colony, while its northern point, Somaliland, was British. “The federal government of Somalia will not compromise its territorial sovereignty, unity or borders,” it said in a statement on Friday. “Israel’s move is illegal, and Somaliland is part of Somalia. Such actions risk fuelling further instability and could enable groups like Al-Shabaab and ISIS.”Several African and Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, condemned the Israeli recognition of Somaliland. Similar condemnations of a breakaway country were heard in the early 2000s, when Christian-majority South Sudan separated from Islamist Sudan. A decade later, though, South Sudan was universally recognized, and in 2011 it became the 193rd UN member. After declaring independence, Somaliland in 1994 appealed to the Israeli premier at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, asking him to recognize the country. Since then, military and commercial ties have tightened between the countries, to Somalia’s chagrin. An Islamist jihadi group that is an Al Qaeda affiliate, Al Shabab, controls large swaths of Somalia’s territory.“Somaliland is a thriving country that wants nothing to do with the failed state of Somalia,” a former Israeli ambassador to neighboring South Sudan, Haim Koren, told the Sun, adding: “It’s an opportunity for us.” On Friday, Israel finally made a move that was in the making for more than three decades. “I’m signing now, as we speak, Israel’s official recognition of Somaliland and its right of self determination,” Mr. Netanyahu said in his Friday call to Mr. Abdullahi. “Our friendship is seminal and historic. So I’m very, very happy, and I’m very proud of this day, and I want to wish you and the people of Somaliland the very, very best.”Israel intends “to work together with you on economic fields, on agriculture, in the fields of social development, all the things that we hope we can assist you,” Mr. Netanyahu told the Somaliland leader, adding, “and of course, I’ll communicate to President Trump your willingness and desire to join the Abraham Accords.”

Israel Blazes a Trail to World Recognition of Somaliland’s Independence

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