In an exclusive interview with i24NEWS on Wednesday, Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said he could not rule out the possibility of an Israeli military base on Somaliland soil in the future while announcing that direct flights between Israel and the capital Hargeisa would begin “very soon.”
Speaking to i24NEWS’s Middle East Now anchor and correspondent Nicole Zedeck during his historic first public state visit to Israel, Abdullahi said the opening of Somaliland’s first-ever embassy in Jerusalem was a natural extension of the two countries’ relationship. “Normally, embassies are opened in the capitals of individual countries that recognize each other,” he said, adding that Israel was the only country to respond to a letter he sent to 193 nations in May 2025 requesting recognition.
Abdullahi was keen to push back on the characterization of Somaliland as a breakaway region, noting that his country declared independence on June 26, 1960, five days before Somalia, making it older than Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, and roughly half the countries on the African continent. “We are not breakaway,” he said. “We became a sovereign country on 26 June, 1960.”
