WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says that he won’t quickly follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recognizing the independence of Somaliland — saying he has to “study” his longtime Mideast ally’s pitch on behalf of the breakaway republic.
Israel on Friday became the world’s first country to recognize Somaliland’s split from anarchic Somalia and Netanyahu vowed to deliver a message to Trump, with whom he is meeting Monday.
“I’ll communicate to President Trump your willingness and desire to join the Abraham Accords,” Netanyahu told Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi in a video call celebrating the diplomatic breakthrough.
But Trump said that he wasn’t swayed and expects his talks with Netanyahu will prioritize the Gaza Strip, where Trump brokered an October cease-fire and now chairs a United Nations-approved Board of Peace to oversee implementation and reconstruction.
“We’ll study it”, US President Donald Trump says regarding recognition of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, after Israel officially became the first country to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent nation.“Everything is under study … We’ll study it.
Trump sounded unimpressed by the Muslim-majority state offering to join the Abraham Accords — through which Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the UAE established relations with Israel — and equally unimpressed by Somaliland’s offer of land for a US naval base near the mouth of the Red Sea.
Asked about Somaliland’s offer to the US of a port on the strategically important Gulf of Aden, Trump dismissively replied, “Big deal.”
“Everything is under study,” the president added.
“We’ll study it. I study a lot of things and always make great decisions and they turn out to be correct.”
