Somalia will not accept an Israeli presence on its territory and will resist being drawn into the Middle East’s crises, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.
Mohamud said Israel plans to establish a naval base in Berbera and use the city’s airport, and that its real aim is to get closer to the Gulf states and Iran.
Berbera is a port city on the Gulf of Aden coast in Somaliland, the self-declared republic in northwestern Somalia that Israel recognised last year but which Mogadishu still claims. It faces Yemen across the water, near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, where the Iran-aligned Houthis have previously enforced a blockade on Israel-linked ships.
“We will overcome the challenges posed to our country by Israeli moves,” Mohamud said.
He said the plans form part of the “Greater Israel” project, a term for various proposals, often rooted in biblical interpretations, for Israeli control beyond its current borders. Some versions stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. Israel has not adopted it as official policy, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an August 2025 interview that he felt connected to the vision, drawing condemnation from Arab governments.
Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and has governed itself for over three decades, but no UN member state recognised it until Israel did.
