--- title: "Somalia’s President Says Israel Wants a Naval Base in Berbera, and the Answer Is No" description: "Hassan Sheikh Mohamud tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s real aim is to get closer to the Gulf states and Iran" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-03T16:25:03Z modified: 2026-10-03T20:58:23Z url: https://rews.cc/a/somalia-s-president-says-israel-wants-a-naval-base-in-berber-42d608 language: en tags: ["israel", "somalia", "houthi", "security", "war", "mideast", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Somalia’s President Says Israel Wants a Naval Base in Berbera, and the Answer Is No *Hassan Sheikh Mohamud tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s real aim is to get closer to the Gulf states and Iran* By Nate Ledger · October 3, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/somalia-s-president-says-israel-wants-a-naval-base-in-berber-42d608 ## In brief - Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Somalia will not accept an Israeli presence “under any circumstances” - He told Al Jazeera Israel plans a naval base in Berbera and use of the city’s airport, aiming at the Gulf states and Iran - Israel recognised Somaliland’s independence on Dec 26, 2025, the first country to do so; the US has not followed - Bloomberg reported in March 2026 that Israel was seeking a Berbera military base to counter Houthi and Iranian threats - Mohamud insists Somaliland is part of Somalia; Somaliland has governed itself since 1991 and welcomed recognition Here is a fun thing about Somalia and Somaliland. Somaliland has been running its own affairs — its own government, its own port, its own airport — since 1991, when it declared independence. But nobody recognised it as a country, which meant it was, on paper, still part of Somalia, which meant that Somalia got to complain on the world stage whenever anyone treated Somaliland like a country. The setup was stable for three decades because it satisfied nobody but annoyed everyone in manageable ways. Then Israel decided to mess with it. On December 26, 2025, Israel became the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland’s independence, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a joint declaration establishing full diplomatic relations, reportedly framed in the spirit of the Abraham Accords. The move did not go down well in Mogadishu, which considers Somaliland part of Somalia, or with the European Union, which reaffirmed “the importance of respecting the unity, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia,” according to [Amani Africa](https://amaniafrica-et.org/emergency-session-on-israels-recognition-of-somaliland/). The United States conspicuously did not follow. President Donald Trump’s reported response was: “Everything is under study. We will study it.” The obvious question was: what does Israel want out of this? Israel does not have deep historical ties to Somaliland. What it has is a geographic problem. Somaliland sits on the Gulf of Aden, directly across the water from Yemen, whose Houthi movement has spent recent years shooting at Red Sea shipping and at Israel. In March 2026, Bloomberg reported that the Israeli government was seeking a military base in Berbera, Somaliland’s main seaport, to counter Houthi and Iranian threats, according to [War on the Rocks](https://warontherocks.com/the-recognition-question-somaliland-israeli-security-geometry-and-the-red-sea-power-struggle/). Recognition, in other words, was possibly the price; a forward operating location on the Red Sea was possibly the product. Now the president of Somalia has said the quiet part back, loudly. In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera published Friday, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that Somalia will not accept an Israeli presence in the country “under any circumstances” and will resist attempts to pull it into the Middle East’s crises. He said Israel was planning to establish a naval base in Berbera and use the city’s airport — and that its real aim was to get closer to the Gulf states and Iran. There is some conceptual tension here, and Mohamud is fully aware of it. Berbera is not administered by his government; it is administered by Somaliland, the very entity Israel just recognised. Somalia saying it won’t accept an Israeli base in Berbera is a bit like saying you won’t accept a guest in a house you insist you own but haven’t been inside since 1991. The claim of sovereignty is precisely the point: if Berbera is Somalia, then an Israeli base there is an Israeli base in Somalia, which Mogadishu can denounce as a violation rather than a bilateral deal between two recognised states. Each side is trying to define the real estate, and the real estate definition determines whose consent matters. Mohamud also told Al Jazeera, as [reported by Ahram Online](https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/578092.aspx), that no country other than Israel recognises Somaliland, and that the region’s own residents are completely opposed to an Israeli presence. That last claim is doing a lot of work, and it sits awkwardly next to Somaliland’s own enthusiasm for the recognition, which its officials have treated as a long-sought diplomatic breakthrough. I think the interesting question is what a naval base in Berbera would actually buy Israel. The port is already one of the more strategically loaded pieces of concrete in East Africa — the port of Berbera’s development has long been tied to the United Arab Emirates, and Berbera has hosted military-runway ambitions before. Adding an Israeli naval facility would put Israeli forces a short hop from the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the chokepoint the Houthis have been menacing. From a geometry standpoint it makes sense. From a “not pulling the Horn of Africa into Middle East conflicts” standpoint — which is Mohamud’s framing — it makes considerably less. For now, what exists is a recognition, a reported plan, and a firm rejection from a government that doesn’t control the territory in question. Somaliland, which does control it, has been notably less firm. “Somaliland says its recognition by Israel could be a boon for its Berbera port,” as Ahram Online put it, adding the kicker: “But with missiles flying across the region, it could also be a” — well, a target, is the word that sentence is politely stepping around. Anyway. Thirty-four years of not being a country, and the first diplomatic prize Somaliland collects is a possible front-row seat to someone else’s war. Recognition is rarely free.