The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Israel’s surprise recognition of Somaliland.
Somalia, which will assume the council presidency in January, requested the meeting after Israel announced the move on Friday.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel and Somaliland would pursue co-operation in agriculture, economic development and other areas.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said on Saturday that the decision would include the appointment of ambassadors and the opening of embassies.
“Israel will act responsibly and we will continue to co-operate with partners who contribute to regional stability,” he said.
The announcement drew swift anger across the Horn of Africa and beyond. Several regional governments accused Israel of undermining Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by elevating a breakaway region that declared independence in 1991 but has not secured international recognition.
Israel is now the only UN member state to acknowledge Somaliland as an independent nation − a shift that threatens to thrust a long-simmering dispute on to the council’s agenda just as it confronts mounting crises across the Middle East and Africa.
A growing number of countries quickly rejected the move.
More than 20 nations, mostly from the Middle East and Africa joined the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation in a joint statement criticising Israel’s decision “given the serious repercussions of such unprecedented measure on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea and its serious effects on international peace and security as a whole”.
Syria issued a separate statement also opposing the recognition.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 amid a civil conflict that has since left the East African nation fragile.
The territory has its own government and currency and occupies a strategic stretch of the Gulf of Aden across from Yemen and bordering Djibouti − which hosts American, Chinese, French and other foreign military bases.
