The President of the Republic of Somaliland, His excellency Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud “Siilaanyo”, held a dinner banquet in honor of the Arab delegation that arrived in Somaliland on Thursday on a fact-finding trip – the first of its kind in over a decade.
By mistakenly recognizing neighboring Somalia as representative of the post 60s Somali Republic, the President told the visiting delegation, the Arab League ought to realize it was only holding onto a slice of an old whole to the detriment of its image and diplomatic ingenuity, shrewdness as it was so unjustly turning its back to a whole nation that was a reality in 1960 and still is in 2016 – the Republic of Somaliland.
“The Arab League must respect the wishes of the Republic of Somaliland, its Constitution and the rightful restoration of the sovereignty we lost to Italian Somalia in 1960,” the President said.
The President urged the delegation to return with an unjaundiced eyeful of Somaliland, its achievements, its determination, its sovereignty and its inalienable right to the statehood its people dearly reclaimed from Somalia in 1991.
The Foreign Minister, Dr. Sa’ad Ali, asked the delegation to take a leading role on Somaliland development initiatives, too.
“It is high time,” he told them “that the Arab League dealt with Somaliland as it should – another integral part of its structure that deserved attention as a separate entity not to be confused with a neighbor”.
Besides the President, present at the working dinner at the Somaliland presidential palace on the Somaliland side were their excellencies the ministers for the Presidency, Mohamoud Hashi Abdi, Foreign Affairs, Sa’ad Ali Shirreh, Interior, Ali Mohamed Waranaddeh, Planning’s Ali Hussein Ismail and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Khalil Abdullahi Ahmed.
The delegation led by Special Envoy to the Chairman of the League, Zayd Al Alsabban, also included Ambassador Abdul Munim Abduladdim, Director of AL Higher Education Bureau, Ambassador Mohamed Abdalla Idiris, the AL Head of Mission to SAomalia/Somaliland and Ahmed Naji Bakal of the AL-Africa Liaison Bureau.
