By The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU—The United Arab Emirates doesn’t recognize the northwestern Somali region as an independent country, said Abu Dhabi’s state minister for foreign affairs.
The declaration ends speculations that the Gulf state’s recent deal with politicians from that region was a prelude to forming diplomatic ties with an area that was agitating for independence since 1991.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, Anwar Gargash said previous Somali governments had approved the port of Berbera deal his government signed with the region’s politicians.
“That understandings (between us and previous Somali governments) was clear. The political position was to support a united Somalia,” he said. “We don’t have a consulate in Somaliland, nor do we have an embassy (there). We don’t have any contacts (with the region).”
Gargash said his government had in the past tried to hold meetings for the leaders of the national government and politicians from the northwestern region to iron out their differences.
Former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the northwestern former leader, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud Silanyo, had in 2012 met in the United Arab Emirates, but the two sides revealed no details about any tripartite agreement allowing Abu Dhabi develop the port of Berbera.
And Gargash admitted as much when he said: “Our role was just facilitation.”
“The understandings,” said Gargash, “was if we recognize a united Somalia – and that is our policy — that should not bar us from carrying out developmental, humanitarian and charitable activities etcetera” in the northwestern region.
But Baasha Awil, the northwestern region’s representative in the UAE disputed Gargash’s account, saying the relationship between his region and the United Arab Emirates is “at its best level.”
Asked if anything has changed since the Mogadishu-based national government rejected the Berbera port deal, Awil replied: “No. Nothing has changed about the relationship between the government of Somaliland (that is the northwestern Somali region) and the brotherly government of (the United Arab) Emirates.”
Awil said his region has a longstanding relationship with the UAE, ties that existed for a long time.
“It is at an excellent stage,” he told a local TV station called Bulsho, recalling the recent visit by Musa Bihi Abdi, the region’s current leader, to the UAE.
“He (Musa) was welcomed and viewed like any other world leader, whether they’re American presidents or other world leaders, ” he said, emphasising that there is no differences between the two sides.
Also, Somalia’s immediate former president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, denied that his administration was party to the port of Berbera deal.
“We don’t have any knowledge of it. Nor are we aware of it,” he told Bulsho TV. “ No official party, be it the Somaliland administration or the government of (the United Arab) Emirates, has officially contacted us, talked with us about this issue. The Berbera port is a Somali port.”
Gargash’s statement also contradicts with what DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said in an exclusive interview with Dubai TV.
“What the federal government says or announces doesn’t concern us,” Bin Sulayem said, adding that the northwestern region “is an independent country for 28 years, things are stable and (it) practices democracy. Our project won the approval of the parliament in Somaliland.
“The federal government can’t basically change anything of the reality on ground, save for just issuing statements which we can’t stop it from them. But on the ground, we continue our work and are committed to the project,” he said.
Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Isse Awad dismissed Bin Sulaymen’s statement as “abhorrent utterances and insults that besmirched the integrity of Somalia.”
Awad disclosed that his government tried in vain to open dialogue with the UAE. He, however, said that the media had exaggerated the extent of the differences between the two Arab League member states.