Djibouti Removes Itself As Candidate For Normalization With Israel

November 26, 2020 7:30 pm

Djibouti’s President Ismael Omar Guelleh. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

The leader of Djibouti, a strategically located country in the Horn of Africa, said that the Muslim-majority country won’t consider normalizing ties with Israel at this time.

“The conditions aren’t ripe,” Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh told the Africa Report. “We neither have a problem with the Jews as a people nor the Israelis as a nation. Some of them even come to Djibouti on business with their passport, and Djibouti’s citizens have been able to travel to Israel for 25 years now.”

But Djibouti does have a “problem” with Israel “denying Palestinians their inalienable rights,” Guelleh clarified. “All we ask that the government do is make one gesture of peace, and we will make 10 in return. But I’m afraid they’ll never do that.”

The tiny country of Djibouti, which has the smallest population in mainland Africa, was one of a few African countries, including Niger, which has been considered by Israel as candidates for the normalization of ties with the Jewish state.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)