The main issue was that, while Ethiopia insisted that the frontier should be determined on the basis of a strictly legalistic interpretation of the 1908 Italo-Ethiopian Convention, Italy maintained that other international agreements should also be taken into account as well as ethnic factors relating to the distribution of different Somali clans in the disputed area. The Italian position thus favoured a more liberal interpretation in the direction of Somali national aspirations. Prior to independence no further progress was made; although, in December 1959, both Ethiopia and Somalia agreed that the British provisional line should remain in force until a final settlement was reached.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 457