Netanyahu Just Dropped His Somaliland Bombshell On The Muslim World: What It All Means

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed a bombshell on the Middle East/North Africa region by making Israel the first country to ever bestow formal recognition on the autonomous region that broke away from Somalia decades ago.

In return Israel will expand recognition of the Jewish state in the Muslim world, but the development immediately drew rebukes from international powers. "I'll communicate to President Trump your willingness and desire to join the Abraham Accords," Netanyahu told Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi during a video call announcing the huge deal and breakthrough.

Netanyahu hailed that the agreement "is in the spirit of the Abraham Accords," adding that "The State of Israel plans to immediately expand its relations with the Republic of Somaliland through extensive cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, technology, and economy."

The White House, however, has made clear that President Trump is not ready to back this, but that instead it remains "under study." The issue is likely to be addressed during the Israeli prime minister's visit to Florida on Monday.

Here's the somewhat ambiguous or cautious answer Trump himself gave during a Friday interview with New York Post:

"Just say, 'No, comma, not at this ...,' " Trump told the Post before modifying his answer on recognizing Somaliland, "Just say no."

"Does anyone know what Somaliland is, really?" Trump added.

So far Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates have established formal relations with Israel. But on Somaliland, the breakaway enclave has reportedly offered land for an American naval base near the mouth of the Red Sea. "Everything is under study," Trump said. "We'll study it."

Somaliland has for decades been at odds with Somalia's central authorities. It declared independence in 1991 amid Somalia's descent into civil war and warlord-driven chaos. Since that time, Somaliland has administered most of the area it claims and has remained relatively peaceful and stable, despite never gaining formal international recognition.

Reacting to the agreement, Somalia's government on Friday blasted Israel for the "unlawful step," reiterating that Somaliland remains "an integral, inseparable, and inalienable part" of Somalia.

As for Israel's motives in this new, historic recognition, a few things are obvious. Looking at a map, assuming future deepened cooperation with Somaliland leaders, it could give Israeli forces a crucial, strategic foothold just across flashpoint waters from Yemen.

It would create an Israeli (and possibly US) beachhead and strategic link across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving Israel closer defensive access to vital global shipping lane threatened by Iran-backed Houthis. Of course, the Houthis have been somewhat regularly also firing ballistic missiles and drones directly on Israel from this very geostrategic 'neighborhood'.

But Israel is doing what it does best: instigating a 'divide and rule' scenario from which it can ultimately benefit in terms of defense strategy. But the real benefit could come if the United States either formally joins the recognition, or else gives it at least a furtive greenlight.

Already, Muslim-majority powers like Egypt have quickly condemned it. Turkey too is not happy. For them, this represents a disunified Muslim front. But US and Israeli grand strategy for the region hinges on peeling away Arab and Muslim powers one by one in recognition of Israel. Syria has of late been a project in this regard, in the wake of the overthrow of vehemently anti-Zionist Bashar al-Assad.

The Somaliland recognition has sparked an avalanche of commentary and varying viewpoints among regional watchers and analysts. Below are three such viewpoints we've rounded up and re-presented...

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This means one thing: more conflict and violence in the Horn of Africa, via independent researcher and geopolitical pundit Markus Virgil Hoehne...

Israel recognized the Republic of Somaliland. This comes at a time when internally, Somaliland is at a historic low. Somaliland had been internally contested from the very beginning (1991-). Over the past 15 years it developed into a one-clan polity, controlled by the demographic majority: Isaaq. It is striving mostly in the Isaaq-inhabited territories between Hargeysa, Berbera and Bur’o. In 2023 the Somaliland army attacked Lasanod, a town in the contested east of Somaliland where the members of the locally dominant Dhulbahante clan always felt they were part of Somalia (and thus had been opposing the unilateral secession of Somaliland from Somalia over decades). Not only did the Somaliland army kill a lot of civilians in Lasanod between February and August 2023; it also lost the war over Lasanod (and with it, many Somaliland soldiers and equipment).

In the wake of Somaliland's defeat, a new administration was established in the east called, first, SSC-Khaatumo and, since mid-2025, North-East State. It covers the lands inhabited by Dhulbahante and is part of Somalia. The map below depicts the Isaaq heartland (including the "Berbera corridor" and the entities in the east that separated themselves from Hargeysa's control over the past years. On 1 January 2024, then President Muse Bihi of Somaliland entered into a MoU with Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia about an Ethiopian naval base west of Berbera (Somaliland) in exchange for shares in Ethiopian Airlines and some “looking into the question of recognition”. This stirred the outrage of the Somali government and across the Somali communities and briefly led to the formation of anti-Ethiopian alliances between the leaders in Mogadishu, Asmara and Cairo.

The geopolitical tensions were calmed with the help of the Turkish government end of 2024 and Ethiopia henceforth remained silent about the MoU. Muse Bihi lost the presidential elections and in Nov. 2024. The candidate of the opposition, Abdirahman Irro, took over. Over the past 12 months, however, Irro’s domestic course had been unclear. He did not manage to advance Somaliland’s interest in the east, which effectively remains part of Somalia (with Dhulbahante having their own administration and Warsangeli partly siding with North-East State, partly with Puntland) - see map below. Recently, a conflict between Ise and Gadabursi, two other non-Isaaq clans, erupted in the far west of Somaliland. The conflict was completely mismanaged by the government in Hargeysa and this caused considerable opposition which led to a heavy-handed reaction by the Somaliland army killing some 19 people and injuring many more in Boroma in early December 2025.

The conflict between the two opposed clans is smoldering ever since. The government of Somaliland is dominated by one clan-family: Isaaq. It effectively controls only parts of the territory claimed as “state territory” (it controls roughly 65-70 per cent). Somaliland’s leaders have become massively corrupt and, what is more worrisome, prone to use violence against opponents. A considerable part of the population of the region opposes Somaliland’s independence from Somalia. The opponents, particularly in the east, are heavily armed. The fact that Israel now recognized this weak and internally contested entity as “state” can, in my view, mean only one thing: more conflict and violence in the Horn of Africa. Netanyahu has already the blood of many Palestinian civilians on his hands. Now he reaches out to create more havoc among Somalis.

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Strategic choke points outweigh traditional sovereignty claims, via geopolitical strategist at consultancy company FACE, Velina Tchakarova...

Israel's historic recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state, just announced, cracks open a highly strategic region: direct access to Berbera port, enhanced Red Sea security amid lingering Houthi threats, countering Iranian influence, and reliable diversification of Ethiopia's trade routes away from Djibouti.

Eyes on the next moves: The UAE, with its deep investments and military presence in Berbera, and the Trump administration, appear primed to follow.

Pure transactional realpolitik: strategic footholds in exchange for recognition. Backlash from Somalia, Egypt, and Türkiye is already fierce, but the momentum is shifting geopolitical alliances irreversibly. In 2025 and beyond, geographic location and choke points outweigh traditional sovereignty claims.

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The conspiracy reading: Israel is behind "fake states" to facilitate expansion of influence in Muslim world, via producer and author for "Palestine Declassified" David Miller...

I have been warning for some time that 'Somaliland' is a fake state created by the Zionists to give them a vital foothold in East Africa, which they need in order to implement the IMEC, along with the UAE. The new fake statelet will serve as a forward operating base and intelligence outpost for Pax Judaica, the new Zionist Empire, of which the UAE itself is already a colony.

Just as the Zionists created 'South Sudan' as a Zionist statelet to counter what they claimed was 'Iranian influence in Africa', the creation of 'Somaliland' is a Zionist tactic to disturb Turkish relations with Somalia. There is a part of the Zionist security state which believes that the Axis of Resistance is already defeated, and Turkey is the great new threat on the horizon.

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The expected Trump-Bibi meeting at Mar-A-Lago surely just got more interesting and is more high stakes than ever.