MOGADISHU: Israel’s recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland “is (a) threat to the security and stability of the world and the region,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told an emergency parliamentary session Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Friday announcement, making his country the first to recognize Somaliland, “is tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic,” Mohamud said.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has for decades pushed for international recognition.

A self-proclaimed republic, it enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own money, passports and army.

But it has been diplomatically isolated since its unilateral declaration of independence.