By TOI STAFF
Sunday July 10, 2022
Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud, in his presidential office at Villa Somalia, Mogadishu, in 2016 (AU-UN IST Photo/Stuart Price/Wikipedia)
A spokesperson for Somalia’s president said on Saturday that
the government is set to consult parliament on the possibility of establishing
diplomatic relations with Israel, Hebrew media reported.
Reports by Channel 12 news and Kan news could not be
immediately verified.
Somalia media reports last month claimed President Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud recently held contacts with Israeli officials while on a trip to
the United Arab Emirates, even flying to Israel, according to one report. These
reports were denied.
Mohamud secretly met with former prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Israel in 2016 while serving his first stint in office, which
ended in 2017.
Upon his reelection to the job in May, a Somali diplomat
close to Mohamud told The Times of Israel that his return to power was a
positive development for a potential normalization process between Mogadishu
and Jerusalem.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with the East
African nation, which has a population of some 11 million. Somalia, a mostly
Sunni Muslim country and a member of the Arab League, has never recognized the
State of Israel.
There have been sporadic reports in recent years of growing
ties between Israel and Somalia.
A lower-level meeting was held in Jerusalem in December
2015, involving representatives from the Economy Ministry and officials from
Somalia, according to a senior official close to Mohamud.
The report on possible normalization with Somalia comes
against a backdrop of flourishing official ties between Israel and some Arab
countries, as well as a push by Israel to strengthen its ties in Africa.
In addition to developments with Somalia, Channel 12
reported that Muse Bihi Abdi, President of Somaliland, an autonomous,
relatively stable region of the country, recently told US officials he was
making overtures to Israel but without any response.
In May, Israel’s embassy in France organized a conference,
inviting French and African journalists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and artists
to examine the future of Israeli cooperation with African countries and businesses.
Somaliland was represented at the conference by its defense
minister.
The Abraham Accords, a joint peace declaration initially
signed on September 15, 2020, officially normalized diplomatic relations
between Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. In December 2020, Morocco
and Israel inked a normalization agreement, establishing full diplomatic
relations. Then, in January 2021, Sudan signed on to the accords, symbolically
declaring its intention to advance normalization with Israel.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.