Djibouti: Ties with Israel only after peace gesture to Palestinians

In an interview with The Africa Report this week, President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh stated that Djibouti will not establish official ties with Israel without progress towards peace with the Palestinians.

Asked whether Djibouti will follow suit of UAE, Bahrain and Sudan in normalizing ties with Israel, Guelleh answered, “No, because the conditions aren’t ripe.”

He said, “We neither have a problem with the Jews as a people nor the Israelis as a nation.”

The president also pointed out that Israelis come to his country to do business, and citizens of Djibouti have been permitted to travel to Israel for the past 25 years.

“However, we take issue with the Israeli government because they’re denying Palestinians their inalienable rights. 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,” added Guelleh.

Till now, Sudan was the last Arab country to agree to establish official ties with Israel, after Egypt, Jordan, UAE and Bahrain.

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