UAE and Bahrain fail to join GCC condemnation of Somaliland opening embassy in Jerusalem

UAE and Bahrain fail to join GCC condemnation of Somaliland opening embassy in Jerusalem Submitted by Alex MacDonald on Tue, 05/26/2026 - 09:48 A range of Arab and Muslim states denounce 'illegal' move by the breakaway Somali state Somaliland prison guards parade at the 35th Independence Day celebrations near the presidential palace in Hargeisa's Shap neighbourhood on 18 May 2026 (Kang-Chun Cheng/AFP) Off The United Arab Emirates  (UAE) and Bahrain have failed to join fellow Gulf states in condemning Somaliland's plan to open a new embassy in Jerusalem. Somaliland’s ambassador to Israel , Mohamed Hagi, said on Tuesday that the move came after Israel became the first and only state to recognise the breakaway Somali region in 2025. “Israel will also establish its embassy in Hargeisa, reflecting growing friendship, mutual respect, and strategic cooperation between our two peoples,” he added, referring to the Somaliland capital. East Jerusalem is considered occupied under international law. Israel wrested control of the city from Jordan in the 1967 war, but the vast majority of countries have refused to recognise it as its capital. Foreign ministers from four of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries - Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - joined Egypt , Jordan, Turkey , Pakistan , Indonesia, Djibouti, Somalia, Palestine , Sudan , Yemen , Lebanon , Mauritania, Algeria , Bangladesh and Morocco in condemning the “illegal and unacceptable step taken by the so-called Somaliland region in opening its purported embassy in occupied Jerusalem”. The UAE and Bahrain, GCC members that have both normalised relations with Israel, did not join the condemnation repo...

Original source: Middle East Eye