According to a statement from Villa Somalia on Saturday, Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, will officially take office today. The Presidential Handover Committee has chosen Monday, May 23rd as the date for the ceremony. The 10th President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, will be sworn in at the Somali presidency. After winning the country’s presidential election on May 15, President Hassan Sheikh will become the country’s first two-term president. According to the country’s constitution, Farmajo, who has been in government for over five years, will now join parliament.
He is the first Somali leader to meet with Netanyahu
According to a statement made to The Times of Israel by a Somali official who is close to Mohamud, the fact that he has returned to power is a favorable development for the possibility of a normalization process between Mogadishu and Jerusalem. The ambassador stated that the group that was opposed to normalizing relations with Israel had withdrawn their support. “The former president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who had a meeting with Bibi, was elected once again.” The new president has given the Somali people reason to have high hopes for the future. The East African nation, which has a population of about 11 million people, and Israel do not have any diplomatic relations. Somalia has never recognized the state of Israel, even though it is mostly made up of Sunni Muslims and is a member of the Arab League.
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In June of 2016, it was claimed on a news website that was run by journalists who were opposed to the Somali regime that Mohamud and three other Somali officials made a short visit to Tel Aviv and met there with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. A senior official who was close to Mohamud at the time confirmed to The Times of Israel that the meeting took place, as well as the fact that another meeting between the two leaders was in the works.
According to the source, there was also a meeting of a lower-level official kind that took place in Jerusalem in December 2015, and it involved officials from Somalia as well as personnel from the Ministry of the Economy. Netanyahu has stated that “we have a lot of interactions with countries that we don’t have formal connections with.” He has not confirmed nor denied the meeting.
Over the years, there have been various indications that there is a desire to restore regular relations with Israel. The United Nations Human Rights Council held a vote in March 2019 to condemn Israel for its occupation of the Golan Heights. Somalia chose to abstain from the vote. It is considered to have been the first occasion that a state that is a part of the Arab League passed up a chance to denounce Israel in a significant international forum. In spite of the fact that Mogadishu voted in favor of three other anti-Israel resolutions on the same day and later reiterated its rejection of Israeli claims over the strategic plateau, the abstention indicated that there is debate in the East African country over potential ties with the Jewish state.
Mohamud, who is the first Somali leader to win a second term as president and served as president between 2012 and 2017, has made a commitment to change the troubled nation located in the Horn of Africa into “a peaceful country that is at peace with the world.” If that promise is to include Israel, then a concrete sign of a desire for diplomatic ties could come as early as next year, when African nations are expected to take up a debate over Israel’s accreditation as an observer state to the African Union. If that promise is kept, then diplomatic ties could be established. During the annual summit that took place in February, discussion on the matter was put on hold, and the committee that is looking into the matter will deliver its findings at the gathering that will take place in 2023.
