{"id":127640,"date":"2026-06-15T11:57:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=127640"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:57:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:57:37","slug":"somalilands-de-facto-leader-makes-historic-visit-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127640\/","title":{"rendered":"Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader makes \u2018historic\u2019 visit to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JERUSALEM: Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi met his Israeli counterpart on Sunday in Jerusalem in his first-ever state visit, which comes months after Israel officially recognised the breakaway African state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December, Israel&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1963551\">became<\/a>&nbsp;the first country to recognise the independence of Somaliland since it declared its autonomy from Somalia in 1991 following a civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe visit carries special significance,\u201d said Abdullahi, according to a statement issued by the office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is the first state visit by a president of the Republic of Somaliland to another country, and we are deeply appreciative that the State of Israel has chosen to receive us with such an honour on this historic occasion,\u201d Abdullahi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSomaliland has been talking, has been reaching out to the world leaders for the last 35 years. They were asking only one question: to see us. Only one country desired to see us and recognise Somaliland, and that\u2019s the government of Israel and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own currency, passport and army, but has struggled to win international recognition amid concerns in many capitals that this would provoke Somalia and encourage other separatist movements in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JERUSALEM: Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi met his Israeli counterpart on Sunday in Jerusalem in his first-ever state visit, which comes months after Israel officially recognised the breakaway African state. In December, Israel&nbsp;became&nbsp;the first country to recognise the independence of Somaliland since it declared its autonomy from Somalia in 1991 following a civil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader makes \u2018historic\u2019 visit to Israel - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127640\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader makes \u2018historic\u2019 visit to Israel - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JERUSALEM: Somaliland\u2019s de facto leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi met his Israeli counterpart on Sunday in Jerusalem in his first-ever state visit, which comes months after Israel officially recognised the breakaway African state. 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