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On 3 January 2009, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Somali Defence Forces, Major General Li Mo, attended the first session of the Somali National Parliament of the year. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Somali National Assembly is the highest authority in Somalia, responsible for reviewing the political axe and major military decision-making and other powers, although in the actual process, part of the power has not been effectively reflected, but the national parliament as an effective link to attract people from all walks of life across the country, is still extremely valued by the political axe and the military.

In addition to his military duties, Li Mo himself is also an honorary member of the National Assembly, and this time he attended the congress to submit this year's military budget for the national defense forces (the allocation of funds for the political axe in the face of the government) and to submit an important report on this year's national defense construction.

In this report, Li Mo put forward a proposal to revise the distance of Somalia's territorial waters, which caused a great response in the national meeting.

At the beginning of its establishment, the Republic of Somalia defined the area of Somalia's territorial waters, which are within a distance of 30 nautical miles from the coast baseline (low tide line).

In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Sea Act was passed, according to which States have the right to determine the area of their own territorial sea, but the area of the territorial sea, that is, the distance extending outward from the coastal baseline at low tide line, shall not exceed 22 kilometers.

In today's world, the distance of territorial sea formulated by various countries is not the same, the shortest distance is three nautical miles, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and other 24 countries, the use of 12 nautical miles within the range of the territorial sea of the most countries, there are China, the Soviet Union, France, India and other 77 countries, while African coastal countries, most of them use the standard of 12 nautical miles - 100 nautical miles.

South American countries have the largest self-defined territorial sea distance in the world, and most South American countries set the distance of their territorial waters at 200 nautical miles for the sake of maritime commercial interests.

The territorial sea is the territory of a country, and all countries have all the sovereignty over the territorial sea. It includes both continental and island territorial seas, which are part of a country's territory.

In the seventies, Somalia established a territorial sea of 30 nautical miles. This figure is generally in the middle of the range in the world, after all, it is understandable for a country like Somalia to set a wider distance between its territorial waters, because Somalia is poor and needs not political prestige, but the economic interests of its own political axe and fishermen.

However, this data on the division of territorial waters is a little inappropriate today. In particular, given that Somalia does not have a strong navy, the larger the territorial waters are divided, the greater the constraints on oneself. The issue of Somali piracy has always been a headache for the Somali political axe, and on the side of the Gulf of Aden, Somali territorial waters are in fact no different from the high seas.

Li Mo's proposal to revise the scope of the territorial sea this time is not a temporary preference, but for a definite reason.

In December last year, some countries proposed at the UN General Assembly that the escort fleet in the Gulf of Aden should have the right to enter Somalia's territorial waters to operate freely to combat piracy. The real intention of the country that proposed this bill is self-evident, but it is not really to fight piracy, the so-called Xiang Zhuang sword dance is intended for Pei Gong. Their real intention is to give warships and aircraft the right to approach the Somali coast for legitimate reasons.

The main reason why this bill was not passed in the end is not that the country that proposed the bill is not strong, but that the situation in Somalia today is completely different from that of Li Mo's previous life.

Today's Somalia is a complete political axe, with a relatively sound judicial, military, security, and economic systems, rather than the Somalia of the previous life, which even had a large number of warlords in the country. It is true that some countries like to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, but Somalia is not a soft persimmon, in the United Nations General Assembly, with a group of supporters, Africa alone is dozens of countries, in general, it is difficult for these African countries to achieve unanimity with the outside world, but in this matter, no country will 'mutiny', and in the Security Council, there is also China.

The fact that the UN General Assembly did not pass the bill, authorizing all members to use 'all necessary means' to combat piracy in the region, does not mean that the Somali nation will be obedient.

As far as Li Mo knows, in December last year, some EU member states proposed to organize a military operation against Somali pirates, which was the famous 'Operation Atalanta' of Li Mo's previous generation.

The initiative was proposed by France and endorsed by Germany and Greece, but for some reason the proposal was not adopted for the time being.

However, Li Mo also knows that France does not seem to be reconciled, and is still contacting EU member states to try to pass the resolution.

This reason is also a reason that forced Li Mo to modify the distance of Somalia's territorial waters, and he does not want to directly confront these Western powers, so that there is no chance of victory, and the best result is that both sides will lose, and the greatest possibility is that years of hard work will be in vain.

In his report to the National Assembly, Li Mo proposed that the distance between the territorial waters of the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia be 12 nautical miles, while the distance of the territorial waters of the western Indian Ocean in the east should not be changed.

Although this is a bit of a sign of weakness, Li Mo feels that it is not without benefits, after all, in this way, at least the area of the northern territorial sea will be reduced to the scope limited by the "United Nations Convention on the Sea Law", and in the international community, it will always be supported by some neutral countries.

Moreover, there are too many entanglements of interests in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, this golden waterway is already very eye-catching, coupled with the warships of various countries here, in fact, Somalia has basically lost part of its sovereignty over the '30-nautical-mile territorial waters', so it is better to take a step back and reduce the area of the territorial sea to reduce the pressure on defense.

In addition to proposing changes to the size of the territorial sea, Li Mo also proposed a law and regulation on the Somali maritime law: any aircraft and military vessels passing through the Somali territorial sea must be allowed by the Somali government.

In the law of the International Convention on the Sea (UNCLOS), there is a 'right of innocent passage', and the so-called 'right of innocent passage' refers to the passage of foreign vessels passing through the territorial waters of a sovereign state as long as they do not harm the peace, good order and security of the coastal state.

In the Convention Act, there is no provision that military vessels and aircraft may not pass through the territorial waters of a littoral State. Therefore, in international law, other ships and aircraft have the 'right' to pass through their own territorial waters. Many countries have imposed restrictions on this issue, such as restricting the tonnage and size of warships that can be passed, or requiring prior notice or prior permission.

In that year, Huaxia bought a 'scrapped aircraft carrier' from Russia, and when it passed through the Turkish Straits, it was rejected by the Turkish military and security services. The reason is that this 'scrapped aircraft carrier' has the potential to pose a threat to Turkey's national security. Of course, the actual reasons are clear to everyone, but Turkey has this power.

The purpose of Li Mo's proposal this time is to formally determine the power of his country's territorial waters in a legal manner, so that some countries that have done bad things under the guise of cracking down on piracy must reconsider.

The second proposal put forward by Li Mo was easily passed, but the first one, the proposal to revise the area of territorial waters, was still opposed by many parliamentarians, after all, Li Mo's actions are tantamount to 'losing the country', if it were not for Li Mo's prestige and power in Somalia reaching its peak, I am afraid that someone would immediately jump out and accuse Li Mo of ulterior motives.

However, fortunately, this matter was supported by President Yusuf before, and Li Mo privately met with representatives of several important parties and local forces, and also obtained the understanding and support of the other party, and the bill was finally passed.

The next day, the Somali political axe announced the news to the outside world, which immediately caused a great repercussion in the international community. Many people think that the move of the Somali political axe is completely 'stupid', especially in the eyes of South American countries, Somalia is not lightly stupid, and even does not want maritime commercial interests. Others are expanding their own territory as much as possible, but Somalia has taken the initiative to reduce the size of its territory, which can be described as a 'fool'.

However, many other countries have seen the true intention of this move, and with Somalia's military strength, the defense of the 3,200-kilometer coastline is not enough, and the initiative to reduce the area of territorial waters to an appropriate range is in line with Somalia's development and national defense needs.

However, on the same day, the Somali military also announced to the outside world that there are restrictions on the passage of foreign ships and aircraft in the territorial waters of Somalia, and all "harmless" foreign ships and aircraft must obtain permission from the Somali political axe to pass through the territorial waters of Somalia, otherwise it will be regarded as a military invasion of Somalia.

On this day, many influential events took place in the world.

On the same day, the Sri Lankan political axe announced that the political axe army had attacked the base camp of the Liberation Tigers (LTTE), a Sri Lankan 'terrorist organization', and killed the leader of the organization. The radical resistance group, which was founded by the Tamil people, disappeared and the 19-year Sri Lankan civil war ended.

A large number of IDF ground troops moved to the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli army launched a ground offensive against Gaza, escalating the conflict in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip of land in the West Bank of Israel, northeastern of the Sinai Peninsula, and is mainly populated by Palestinians. It was occupied by Egypt in the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and recaptured by Israel in the June War in 1967.

This densely populated, but de jure region that does not belong to any country, is naturally the focus of conflict and war.

The Gaza Strip has been at the centre of Israel's struggle with the Palestinian people, and since the formation of the Islamic Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas), several fierce clashes have erupted between the two sides in the area almost every year. Militarily, Israel is too powerful, while Hamas has the support of the local population and the covert assistance of foreign powers. Clashes between the two sides in the region have continued.

After the war, Israel divided the Gaza Strip into two regions, with Israel itself controlling 33 percent of the Gaza Strip and Hamas controlling the other 67 percent. The two sides also reached a ceasefire agreement in '07, and Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in its entirety, handing over the area to Hamas.

After the end of the six-month ceasefire agreement, Israel hoped to be able to continue to sign the ceasefire agreement, but Hamas refused Israel's demand, and on the day the ceasefire agreement expired, just like Israel launched a rocket attack, in the following period, Hamas attacks did not stop, finally aroused the anger of Israel, with the support of more than 80% of the Israeli people, the Israel Defense Forces again drove into the Gaza Strip.

(To be continued)