00:00This weekend, as Israel became the first UN member state to formally recognize Somaliland
00:05as an independent nation, U.S. President Donald Trump refused to immediately follow suit and
00:10questioned if the breakaway region was even widely known at all.
00:14I want you to know that I'm signing now, as we speak, Israel's official recognition of
00:22Somaliland and its right of self-determination. Our friendship is seminal.
00:30Somaliland is a former British colony. It initially formed the Somali Republic with the Italian-administered
00:39territory of Somalia. But feelings of marginalization and a coup in Mogadishu led to a war of independence
00:45in the 1980s. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has pushed for international
00:52recognition for decades. It has its own currency, army, police, and it maintains diplomatic relations
00:59with several countries, including the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, and Taiwan. But Israel is
01:06the first country to officially recognize Somaliland.
01:09Somaliland has received its fairest formal international recognition as a sovereign and independent state.
01:18This development of famous and objective reality that has long existed.
01:23Its geographic proximity to Yemen and its coastline on the Red Sea could allow it to become a base
01:29for operations against the Houthis, according to a report from an Israeli think tank.
01:35For its part, Somalia's foreign ministry denounced Israel's recognition of Somaliland as a deliberate
01:41attack on its sovereignty, while the African Union warned the move set a dangerous precedent.
01:46Somalia's foreign ministry denounced Israel.
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