<span style="color: #222222;">Mali's foreign affairs minister, Abdoulaye Diop has said that the military government would exercise its right to self-defense if France continued to undermine the country's sovereignty and national security. <br />''<br />''Speaking at a United Nations Security Council briefing on Mali in New York, Mr. Abdoulaye Diop alleged that France had violated Mali's airspace and delivered arms to Islamist militants. However, France's representative denied the accusations and defended its intervention in Mali as fully transparent. <br />''<br />''France's relations with Mali have soured since an August 2020 coup and it is withdrawing troops sent in 2013. The West African country Mali has faced instability since 2012 when Islamist militants hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the north.</span><br />