Mogadishu outraged as Israeli foreign minister visits Somaliland

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar defended Israel’s controversial decision to become the first country to recognize Somaliland as an independent state as “morally right” during a visit to the Horn of Africa on Tuesday.

Israel took the decision at the end of December to condemnation from other countries in the region. Somaliland, with its capital at Hargeisa in northern Somalia, has been effectively independent from Somalia for more than three decades.

Saar said that no one would determine the countries that Israel recognized as states. Somaliland was a “functioning state” and “a stable democracy,” he said, according to his office.

According to the information, mutual embassies would soon be opened, and Israel had invited Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi to visit.

Speaking in Hargeisa, Saar criticized the recognition of a Palestinian state by many countries. By contrast with Palestine, Somaliland was not an apparent state, Saar said without further explanation.

Mogadishu reacted sharply to Saar’s visit to Hargeisa. The Somali Foreign Ministry said Somaliland was an “integral and indivisible part” of Somalia.

Saar’s visit represented a serious violation of the sovereignty and political unity of Somalia and an unacceptable interference in the country’s internal affairs, it said in a statement.

Somaliland has long called for international recognition.