Ethiopia has recalled its consul from the breakaway northern Somalia territory of Somaliland on Monday, an official says, in a move that analysts say could be a precursor for a diplomatic withdrawal from the enclave by Ethiopia\u2019s government under the new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed amid a new regional political shift.<\/p>\n
The development follows a second tripartite meeting by leaders from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia which was in the Ethiopian city of Bahir Dar last week in which the three leaders signed a new agreement launching a new regional economic integration initiative, a groundbreaking move which has the potential to change the region\u2019s overall political and economical interplay.<\/p>\n
According to Ismail Suldan Abdirahman, a Somaliland lawmaker, Ethiopia\u2019s consul general Bereha Tesfay left Hargeisa, Somaliland\u2019s capital bound for Addis Ababa on a scheduled flight having informed local officials that he was recalled by his government without giving further details.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea if Ethiopia will post him (consul) here again.\u201d He told lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Somaliland which maintains a representative office in Addis Ababa is yet to comment on the development which many say signals the beginning of an end to the informal diplomatic links that Ethiopia had maintained with Somaliland for years.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s new prime minister Abiy Ahmed is reported to be planning to implement a new foreign policy including maintaining diplomatic relations with Somalia\u2019s central government alone by dropping all relations with Somaliland which had declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991. However, no country has so far recognized it as an independent state.<\/p>\n
Losing relations with Ethiopia would be a significant blow for Somaliland and poses a problem as Somaliland seeks to maintain its international status. It will also leave it with a few allies across the region, raising fears of new political and economical isolations against it.<\/p>\n
Somaliland\u2019s relations with Djibouti also remains strained since it signed a port deal with the UAE\u2019s DP World, a move which will challenge Djibouti\u2019s virtual monopoly over maritime trade.<\/p>\n
Since taking office early last year, Somali government under president Mohamed has implemented ranges of new policies that largely rested on zero-sum diplomacy for Somaliland and pushed for \u2018non-interference\u2019 relations including diplomatic dealings with the country\u2019s self-ruled northern territory that adversely affected the breakaway region\u2019s international status.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ethiopia\u2019s possible diplomatic withdrawal from Somaliland comes just days after Horn African leaders vowed to respect the \u2018sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence\u2019 of Somalia which had long sought to block decades-old bid for an independence by the northern territory, in response to requests by Somali president who accused Ethiopia of interfering his country\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n
Responding to Somalia\u2019s accusations against Ethiopia, prime minister Abiy Ahmed has in turn pledged a \u2018full support and interference-free relations with the Somali central government, noting that his government would \u2018stand by it as parts of a new chapter\u2019 in relations between the two countries long characterized by mistrust and misgivings.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Ethiopian government could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Source: AllEastAfrica<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ethiopia has recalled its consul from the breakaway northern Somalia territory of Somaliland on Monday, an official says, in a move that analysts say could be a precursor for a diplomatic withdrawal from the enclave by Ethiopia\u2019s government under the new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed amid a new regional political shift. The development follows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}