Saturday 27/December/2025 – 06:43 AM
US President Donald Trump announced in an interview published on Friday his refusal to recognize the independence of Somaliland, following the Israeli occupation’s official recognition of the self-declared republic separate from Somalia.
Trump answered “No” when asked in an interview with the New York Post published on Friday whether he would follow the example of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and recognize it, asking, “Does anyone really know what Somaliland is?”
But Trump added that “everything is under study,” explaining: “We will study the matter.”
“I study a lot of things, and I always make correct decisions, and they are proven correct.”
Israel became the first country to recognize the separatist region of “Somaliland” in Somalia.
Friday’s agreement, announced by Netanyahu, comes ahead of his scheduled December 29 talks with President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort, regarding the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and broader efforts to stabilize the Middle East, according to Bloomberg News.
Netanyahu’s office said that the Prime Minister and President of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, signed a mutual recognition agreement.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office, describing Somaliland as an “independent and sovereign state,” stated that Netanyahu invited Abdullah to pay an official visit to Israel.
For his part, the President of Somaliland announced that after more than three decades of autonomy, the region had obtained its first official recognition as an independent state.
In turn, the Somali government announced in a statement its rejection of what it described as a deliberate attack on its sovereignty and the step taken by Israel to recognize Somaliland as an independent state.
