Arab foreign ministers met on Wednesday to discuss a recent deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to grant Addis Ababa access to the Red Sea coastline, a move that Mogadishu has strongly condemned. Somalia, which requested the meeting, maintains that Somaliland’s deal with Ethiopia is a breach of international law and its own sovereignty. It sits on a strategic location close to the Bay of Aden close to the southern mouth of the Red Sea. “This unilateral move by Ethiopia poses a threat to Arab national security and Red Sea shipping,” Somalia’s ambassador to the Arab League Elias Abu Bakr said. Its secession deprived Ethiopia of access to the Red Sea coastline.
