A growing diplomatic rift has emerged across the Middle East and broader Muslim world over a controversial plan by the self-declared independent region of Somaliland to open an embassy in occupied East Jerusalem, with two Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members notably declining to join a widespread collective condemnation of the move.
The proposal comes on the heels of a historic step last year: Israel became the first country in the world to formally recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state, a breakaway territory that declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not secured widespread international recognition. In comments delivered Tuesday, Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland’s ambassador to Israel, confirmed the reciprocal diplomatic arrangement, noting that Israel will also open its own embassy in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s administrative capital. Hagi framed the exchange of diplomatic missions as a reflection of deepening friendship, mutual respect, and expanding strategic cooperation between the two entities.
Under longstanding international law, East Jerusalem is universally classified as occupied Palestinian territory. Israel seized control of the area from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War, and despite Israel’s annexation of the territory, the overwhelming majority of the global community has declined to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s sovereign capital.
The planned embassy opening has drawn sharp condemnation from a broad coalition of regional and international states. Foreign ministers from four of the six GCC member states—Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—joined more than a dozen other nations including Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Djibouti, Somalia, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon, Mauritania, Algeria, Bangladesh, and Morocco to denounce what they called the “illegal and unacceptable step taken by the so-called Somaliland region in opening its purported embassy in occupied Jerusalem.” Even GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi joined the rebuke, stating that the diplomatic move violates international law and United Nations resolutions.
Notably absent from the collective condemnation were the UAE and Bahrain, the two GCC states that have already normalized formal diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords. Requests for comment from Middle East Eye to clarify the two countries’ positions on the Somaliland embassy plan went unanswered as of the publication of the original reporting.
Beyond the diplomatic controversy over Jerusalem, the recognition of Somaliland by Israel has opened the door to discussions of deeper security cooperation. Multiple sources have confirmed that Somaliland officials have held talks with Israeli counterparts about constructing a permanent Israeli military base in the territory, a proposal that reverses earlier denials of such plans by Hargeisa’s foreign ministry. For Israel, a military foothold in Somaliland would place its forces within short striking distance of Yemen’s Houthi movement, which has launched repeated attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since late 2023, actions the group says are in retaliation for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The status of Somaliland itself remains a contentious global issue. While the region has operated as a de facto independent state since 1991, the United Nations, African Union, and nearly all sovereign governments still recognize it as an integral part of Somalia. The UAE has maintained close diplomatic and security ties with Somaliland since 2017, when Hargeisa granted Abu Dhabi permission to establish its own military base in the region, a partnership Somaliland has leveraged to build international support for its independence bid.
This close alliance has already sparked regional friction in recent months. In January, Saudi Arabia publicly accused the UAE of secretly evacuating Yemeni separatist leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi—who faced treason charges in Yemen—from Yemen to Somaliland, before he traveled onward to Abu Dhabi. Somalia reacted furiously to the incident, canceling all of the UAE’s commercial and military agreements related to Somaliland, even though Mogadishu holds little effective control over the territory. Unlike Saudi Arabia, which centers its diplomatic engagement on Somalia’s recognized central government in Mogadishu, the UAE’s approach to the Horn of Africa has long been structured around its separate ties to both Somaliland and the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland.