The move comes months after Israel became the first country to recognise the territory, in a widely condemned move<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 15 Apr 2026<\/span>15 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Israel has appointed its first ambassador to Somaliland, months after it officially recognised the breakaway region in Somalia.<\/p>\n The appointment of Michael Lotem, who has previously served as Israel\u2019s ambassador to Kenya, was reported by Israel\u2019s public broadcaster on Wednesday.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n It is the latest step in a partnership that has gathered pace rapidly since December, when Israel became the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland, ending more than 30 years of diplomatic isolation.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Somaliland\u2019s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, told a joint session of parliament that Israel had proven itself a \u201creliable partner\u201d, drawing lawmakers to their feet in applause.<\/p>\n But Somalia\u2019s foreign ministry released a statement condemning Israel\u2019s decision to appoint an ambassdor, describing it as a \u201cdirect breach\u201d of the country\u2019s sovereignty and unity.<\/p>\n Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, following a devastating civil war, but Somalia has never recognised it.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s recognition of Somaliland has drawn wide condemnation from the UN Security Council, the African Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the European Union.<\/p>\n Since Israel\u2019s announcement in December, both sides have moved swiftly to develop the relationship.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, visited Somaliland\u2019s capital, Hargeisa, in January, and Somaliland subsequently sent a delegation from its water ministry to Israel for training in water management.<\/p>\n Somaliland\u2019s president told the news agency Reuters in February that he expected a trade deal with Israel to follow soon.<\/p>\n Israel has also granted diplomatic approval to Mohamed Hagi, a presidential adviser who was central to brokering the recognition, as Somaliland\u2019s first ambassador to Israel.<\/p>\n Somali officials have been angered by the growing ties, with the country\u2019s president earlier this year calling it the \u201cgravest attack\u201d on the country\u2019s sovereignty and accusing Israel of seeking to establish a military base to launch attacks against Yemen.<\/p>\n Somaliland lies across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthi movement controls the country\u2019s northwest. The group is hostile to Israel and began firing missiles at the country in late March in response to Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n The Houthis have said they would consider an Israeli presence in Somaliland a legitimate target.<\/p>\n In March, Somaliland\u2019s minister of the presidency, Khadar Hussein Abdi, told Bloomberg that it would pursue a \u201cstrategic relationship\u201d with Israel encompassing security cooperation.<\/p>\n Abdi refused to rule out the prospect of an Israeli military base in the country and said that it \u201cwill be analysed at some point\u201d.<\/p>\n Ali Omar, Somalia\u2019s state minister for foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera that his country did not want to see its territory \u201cpulled into external confrontations or used in ways that could further destabilise an already sensitive region\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The move comes months after Israel became the first country to recognise the territory, in a widely condemned move Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026 Israel has appointed its first ambassador to Somaliland, months after it officially recognised the breakaway region in Somalia. The appointment of Michael Lotem, who has previously served as Israel\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Faisal-Ali-Headshot-1756804692.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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