Channel 12 news and Kan news could not be immediately verified. According to Somali media reports last month, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud recently had contacts with Israeli officials while on a trip to the United Arab Emirates, even flying to Israel, according to a report. These reports were denied. Mohammed secretly met with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in 2016 while serving his first term in office, which ended in 2017. After his re-election to his post in May, a Somali diplomat close to Mohammed told The Times of Israel that his return to power was a positive development for a possible normalization process between Mogadishu and Jerusalem. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms Israel does not have diplomatic relations with the East African nation, which has a population of about 11 million. Somalia, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country and 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 finance ministry representatives and officials from Somalia, according to a senior official close to Mohammed. The report of a possible normalization with Somalia comes against a backdrop of blossoming official ties between Israel and some Arab countries, as well as Israel’s push 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 that he had made overtures to Israel but received no response. Simon Seroussi, representative of the Israeli embassy in France (L), Magatte Seye, Senegal’s envoy to France, Ben Bourgel, Israel’s envoy to Senegal and Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache, director of AJC Paris, speak at the Israel Back to Africa summit in Paris, May 31, 2022. (MFA) In May, the Israeli embassy in France organized a conference, inviting French and African journalists, diplomats, businessmen and artists to examine the future of Israeli cooperation with African countries and businesses. Somaliland was represented at the conference by the Minister of Defence. The Abraham Accords, a joint peace declaration originally signed on September 15, 2020, formally normalize diplomatic relations between Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. In December 2020, Morocco and Israel signed a normalization agreement, establishing full diplomatic relations. Then, in January 2021, Sudan signed the accords, symbolically stating its intention to advance normalization with Israel. Lazar Berman contributed to this report. It’s not (only) for you. Supporting The Times of Israel is not a transaction for an online service, such as subscribing to Netflix. The ToI community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions around the world, for free. Of course, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll get access to some awesome Community-only content. But your support gives you something deeper than that: the pride of participating in something that really matters. Join the Times of Israel Community Join our Community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with the must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. So now we have a request. Unlike other media, we have not set up a paywall. But because the journalism we do is expensive, we invite readers to whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community. For just $6 a month you can support our quality journalism by enjoying Times of Israel ADS-FREE, as well as access to exclusive content available only to members of the Times of Israel Community. Thank you, David Horowitz, founding editor of the Times of Israel Join our community Join our community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
