Somaliland official runs away from an interview with Al JazzeeraTranslation of the interview
Ahmed Taha, a presenter on Al Jazeera, conducted an interview with Hirsi Ali , president of the ruling Waddani Party in the so called Somaliland . During the interview , Ahmed Taha posed the question that many observers are currently raising :
The question everyone is asking now is:
Why did you take this controversial and infuriating step, not only to the Arab and Islamic regimes but also to the Arab and Islamic peoples, regarding normalization with Israel and receiving the Israeli Foreign Minister at a time when the Israelis are killing Palestinians day and night in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon?
Why did you take this step?
I ask you, what prompted you to take this step of normalization with Israel? ) .
Hirsi Ali , president of the ruling Waddani Party in the so called Somaliland , responded :
First , I want to say that the word "separatists" . We are not separatists; we have been an independent state for 34 years.
The issue of normalizing relations with Israel is not limited to Somaliland; many Arab and Islamic countries have extensive political and economic ties with Israel, such as Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, the UAE, Morocco, and others. We in Somaliland have no choice but to welcome any country that recognizes our right to exist. We are not in a position of choice, but rather in a position of necessity for official international recognition. We also emphasize that our relations with Israel are diplomatic and based on mutual exchange .
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