Residents of Somaliland took to the streets to celebrate on Friday after Israel became the first nation to recognize the breakaway region, as US President Donald Trump dampened expectations he could follow Jerusalem’s lead.
While Trump at one point said he would study the issue, he later appeared dismissive.
“Everything is under study,” he said in a phone interview with the New York Post. “We’ll study it. I study a lot of things and always make great decisions and they turn out to be correct.”
Residents of Somaliland took to the streets to celebrate on Friday after Israel became the first nation to recognize the breakaway region, as US President Donald Trump dampened expectations he could follow Jerusalem’s lead.
While Trump at one point said he would study the issue, he later appeared dismissive.
- “Everything is under study,” he said in a phone interview with the New York Post. “We’ll study it. I study a lot of things and always make great decisions and they turn out to be correct.”
Residents of Somaliland took to the streets to celebrate on Friday after Israel became the first nation to recognize the breakaway region, as US President Donald Trump dampened expectations he could follow Jerusalem’s lead.
While Trump at one point said he would study the issue, he later appeared dismissive.
“Everything is under study,” he said in a phone interview with the New York Post. “We’ll study it. I study a lot of things and always make great decisions and they turn out to be correct.”
Does anyone know what Somaliland is, really?” Trump said
According to the Post, Trump sounded unimpressed by Somaliland’s willingness to join the Abraham Accords, even as the war in Gaza has frustrated efforts to expand the landmark normalization agreements that he brokered between Israel and several Muslim nations.
Nor was Trump impressed by Somaliland’s offer to host a US military port, according to the Post. “Big deal,” he said when asked about the offer.
Israel on Friday became the first country to recognize Somaliland, a former British protectorate that unilaterally declared independence from formerly Italian-ruled Somalia in 1991.
Footage from Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, showed crowds waving the national flag and singing in the streets, while images of the Israeli and Somaliland flags were projected on the exterior of the National Museum of Somaliland.
In downtown Hargeisa, something once unimaginable, a Israeli flag emblazed on the city’s main museum.
Loads of people are celebrating beneath. pic.twitter.com/1AIQVgod7K
— Faisal (@FaisalAHAli) December 26, 2025
Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, who has made international recognition a top priority since taking office last year, said in a post on X that Israel’s recognition represented a “historic moment” and the start of a “strategic partnership.”
Somaliland has in the past been touted as a possible destination for Gazans ousted from the Strip under a plan Trump presented in February to take over the enclave. But Gaza peace plan the US published in September says that Palestinians would be encouraged to stay in the Strip, and it was not immediately clear if Israel’s move was related to the Strip.
Despite the celebrations in Somaliland, Israel’s move sparked widespread anger
Source Times of Israel
