LOC20:15
17:15 GMT
CAIRO, Jan 6 (KUNA) -- Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmad Abul-Gheit on Tuesday condemned and denounced a visit by Israeli occupation's foreign minister to Somalia's Hargeisa City earlier in the day.
In a press statement, he considered this a failed attempt to establish the Israeli occupation recognition of a northwestern Somali area as an independent state.
He restated the Arab bloc's absolute opposition to any official or semi-official dealing with this area's authorities outside the framework of the Somali federal government's national sovereignty, billing this Israeli occupation step a blatant breach of Somalia's unity and sovereignty.
He warned that this would undermine regional peace and security and escalate political tensions in Somalia, the Red Sea region, Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa.
This visit days came a few days after the Israeli occupation formally recognized Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, a step that has sparked wide-scale Arab and international condemnations. (end)
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