Somalia Rejects Dialogue with Ethiopia Until Reversal

Somalia's refusal to engage in dialogue with Ethiopia remains unchanged until Ethiopia reverses its agreement with the separatist region of "Somaliland," which allows Ethiopia to utilize the Berbera port on the Red Sea.

This decision by Somalia coincides with a meeting of regional leaders held yesterday in an attempt to resolve the ongoing diplomatic crisis.

The dispute has intensified between Addis Ababa and the Arab League due to Ethiopia's memorandum of understanding with the internationally unrecognized "Somaliland."

Ethiopia rejected the Arab foreign ministers' statement regarding the memorandum, considering its interference in its internal affairs, while the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Jamal Rashdi, criticized Ethiopia's statements as diplomatically inappropriate.

On January 1st of this year, Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with "Somaliland," an internationally unrecognized region.

This agreement granted Ethiopia, a landlocked country, the right to establish a commercial port and military base at the entrance to the Red Sea, covering a length of 20 kilometers on a lease for 50 years in exchange for recognizing the region's independence.

Somalia rejected the memorandum of understanding, and President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud signed a law nullifying its content, a move that received support from the Arab League at the time, denouncing the memorandum as invalid, null, and unacceptable.