Efforts of the leaders of Israel and Somalia to establish ties between the two countries back in 2020 came up against opposition from then-US President Donald Trump, according to a former diplomat cited by The Times of Israel.
Trump was reportedly less than eager to include Somalia in the regional effort that eventually come to be known as the Abraham Accords.
“He didn’t want to deal with the country, he thought it was a ‘sh*thole country,'” the former diplomat was cited as saying.
It was a barrage of attacks on Trump by Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar – herself a refugee from Somalia – that ostensibly soured the 45th POTUS towards the country. One of the first two Muslim women elected to the US Congress, Omar repeatedly rejected allegations about her anti-American sentiment, lambasting the Trump administration over its policy on refugees.
In response, Donald Trump slammed the Minnesota congresswoman as “an America-hating socialist.”
The then-president was referring to remarks made by Omar in April 2019, which Republicans claimed ha minimized the 9/11 attack and its consequences.
Back in February 2020, Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known by his nickname Farmaajo, flew to Jerusalem for a secret meeting with then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the report in The Times of Israel claimed.
He was accompanied by Balal Osman, his special envoy for Horn of Africa, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to the cited ex-diplomat.
The two leaders discussed the possibility of establishing ties between the countries.
Before that, Netanyahu and Mohamed met on November 28, 2017, on the sidelines of a meeting between the then-Israeli PM and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi, the report added.
According to the diplomat, Somalia’s president instructed the country’s ambassador to Switzerland, Faduma Abdullahi Mohamud, to abstain on a 2019 UN Human Rights Council vote condemning Israel over the Golan Heights. At the time, it was deemed as a test of both the domestic and international reaction to the public show of support for Israel by an Arab League state, the outlet writes.
However, Somalia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Mohamud back after the vote on the resolution, entitled “Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan,” on March 22, 2019. Farmaajo had no choice, the insider claimed, after receiving both internal and external threats.
On March 26, a day after Donald Trump formalized recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the Somali government issued a statement reiterating its “firm position” that the “Syrian territory was illegally occupied by Israel.”
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with the East African nation, a mostly Sunni Muslim country and member of the Arab League.
Still, the report feeds into sporadic unverified claims of a warming of ties between the two countries.
A spokesperson for Somalia’s president on Saturday stated that the government would consult parliament on the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, according to reports by Channel 12 news and the Kan public broadcaster.
Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords, sealed under the auspices of then-President Donald Trump in late 2020, established diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The deal paved the way for the establishment of Israel’s ties with other Muslim nations - Sudan and Morocco. Since then, all parties have sealed a number of important pacts in the spheres of economy and defense.
Signatories to the Abraham Accords are set to convene in mid-July for a second time, following the Negev Summit that was held in March. The meeting, due to take place in the Bahraini capital Manama, will also include participants from Jordan, Egypt, and the United States.