March 28, 2024

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Somalia recalls its Geneva envoy over abstaining from vote

MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News)-Somali ambassador to Switzerland, Faduma Abdullahi Mohamed was Saturday summoned by the country’s Foreign ministry over abstaining from UN Human Rights Council vote to pass a resolution against the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution opposing the Israeli occupation of Golan Heights and urging Israel to comply with the UN resolutions.

The resolution called on Israel to allow Syrians in the occupied Golan Heights to visit their families, access of international institutions to the region and release all Syrian detainees, including those who have been held in Israeli jails for 30 years.

Twenty-six votes accepted the resolution in favour, 16 against and 5 abstentions.Somalia was said to be among 5 countries that abstained from voting that included Rwanda, Cameroon, Fiji, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a letter addressed to Ms Faduma seen by Halbeeg News, Somali Foreign Affairs Ministry has summoned the ambassador for more explanation over the decision to abstain.

“It hereby kindly inform you that you come to the headquarters of the ministry as soon as possible,” the letter reads in part.

Since its independence in 1960, Somalia had been opposing Israel’s occupation of a broad swath of Palestine and Syria.

The vote came barely a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said: “it was time for the U.S. to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights fully”.

Israel has long pushed Washington to recognise its claim over the territory it seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel occupies roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan Heights as a de facto result of the conflict. It moved to annex the territory in 1981 formally — an action unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council.

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