Israeli Minister in Somaliland – Wants Embassy

TT

Published 15.41

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. Archive photo. Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP/TT

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has landed in the Somali breakaway region of Somaliland, after the country recognized the region as an independent country late last year.

Saar said in a statement that Israel will open an embassy in Somaliland, and vice versa, and that Somaliland “unlike ‘Palestine’ is not a fictitious state,” writes Haaretz.

Somaliland’s Information Ministry describes the visit as a milestone in bilateral relations, while the Somali government says it is “an unacceptable interference in Somalia’s internal affairs.”

Somali Foreign Minister Ali Omar has accused Israel of wanting to move Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Somaliland. Last year, Israeli and American sources told the AP that such a plan existed, but that it had been scrapped.

Somaliland in northwestern Somalia, with a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden, declared itself an independent republic in 1991. The secession has never been recognized by the outside world.