A US diplomat at the United Nations Security Council has defended Israel’s decision to recognise Somaliland, a breakaway territory of Somalia, drawing strong criticism from her peers.
Tammy Bruce, the American ambassador to the UN told an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Monday argued that Israel reserves the right to cultivate diplomatic relations with other sovereign states of its choice and should not be condemned for it.
Bruce drew parallels with other nations recognising Palestine as a state, provoking criticism from colleagues who expressed outrage for ‘daring to compare incomparables’.
Ms Bruce however shot back, accusing her colleagues of hypocritical double speak whenever Israel is the subject of discourse at the UNSC in New York.
“Earlier this year, several countries, including members of this council, made the unilateral decision to recognise a nonexistent Palestinian state, and yet no emergency meeting was called to express this Council’s outrage,” she said.
However, she made it clear that the Donald Trump administration is as matter of principle opposed to the idea of recognising Somaliland, an internationally unrecognised enclave of just over 6 million people which declared itself an independent sovereign state in 1991.
Washington’s current position reflects President Trump’s personal view on the question of Somaliland independence.
A 176,120 square kilometre territory on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden was last Friday recognised by Israel, drawing strong condemnation from Egypt, Eritrea, the African Union, the European Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League, China, Turkey and Pakistan, who described the move as a dangerous precedent.
The authorities in Mogadishu have accused Israel of blithely violating international law by ‘encroaching’ on Somali territory.
Somalia’s ambassador to the UNSC Abukar Osman described Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an ”act of aggression aimed at encouraging fragmentation”.
During the emergency session, some member states expressed unwavering commitment to Somalia’s territorial inviolability.
Defending his country, Israeli diplomat Jonathan Miller said the move was being wrongfully construed as hostile towards Somalia but said it could be the catalyst for regional peace and stability.
Somaliland is regarded as a strategic territory overlooking volatile Yemen where Houthi rebels have been disrupting Red Sea shipping traffic in recent years.
With its capital at Hargeisa, Somaliland has all the trappings of an independent nation including an army and police, a currency, a passport, and holds periodic democratic elections that pass off peacefully.
It has also enjoyed decades of peace, relative to Somalia which has been mired in a bloody insurgency by the militant group al-Shabaab since 2007.
WN/as/APA