Amid sporadic reports of warming ties between countries, official says Trump didn’t want the Arab League member in Abraham Accords; Netanyahu’s office does not confirm
Somalia’s president held a secret meeting in early 2020 with then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former diplomat with knowledge of the trips told The Times of Israel.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, popularly known by his nickname Farmaajo, flew to Jerusalem in February of that year with Balal Osman, Mohamed’s special envoy for Horn of Africa, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to the diplomat.
The two leaders discussed the possibility of establishing ties between the countries. But those efforts were not supported by then-US president Donald Trump, who didn’t want to include Somalia in the regional effort that would come to be known as the Abraham Accords, said the diplomat.
The official said that attacks on Trump by Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a refugee from Somalia who moved to the US, turned the president off to the country.
The previous time that Netanyahu and Mohamed met was on November 28, 2017, on the sidelines of a well-publicized meeting between Netanyahu and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi, said the former diplomat. That sit-down with Mohamed took place at Netanyahu’s request.
Spokespeople for Netanyahu did not respond to requests for comment.
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.
Still, there have been a series of unverified reports of warming ties between the two countries.
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, according to reports by Channel 12 news and the Kan public broadcaster that could not be independently verified.
Somali media reported last month that current 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. Those 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.
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.
Source: Times of Israel
