{"id":9973,"date":"2026-02-09T13:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/09\/exclusive-somaliland-pitches-minerals-strategic-location-to-trump-semafor\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:10:17","slug":"exclusive-somaliland-pitches-minerals-strategic-location-to-trump-semafor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/09\/exclusive-somaliland-pitches-minerals-strategic-location-to-trump-semafor\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive \/ Somaliland pitches minerals, strategic location to Trump &#8211; Semafor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Abdilahi said the backlash over Israel\u2019s announcement was expected. \u201cNegative reactions were mostly based on interests, or some didn\u2019t know the history of Somaliland,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are older than Somalia, and we voluntarily merged with Somalia because we wanted to unite all Somali-speaking territories at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said Somaliland has long pursued recognition quietly, and will continue to do so. \u201cWe are working hard to get more friends and countries,\u201d Abdilahi said. \u201cWe have more enemies than before, so everything has to be done discreetly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abdilahi also plans to deepen ties with Israel, including opening embassies and exchanging commercial attach\u00e9s. \u201cIsrael is a highly technologically advanced country. So we want to benefit from their technology in all aspects \u2014 in education, in agriculture, in science, in water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The president also reiterated previous overtures to Washington, highlighting Somaliland\u2019s coastline on the Red Sea and in the Horn of Africa, as well as its mineral resources, which he explicitly offered to Trump. \u201cWe have an abundance of natural resources, including minerals. We have oil and gas. We have very large arable land for agriculture,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the best beaches in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Somaliland supporters in Washington view the territory as a potential security ally in the Horn of Africa. Recognition could allow US intelligence to establish a base to monitor weapons flows, Houthi activity in Yemen, and China\u2019s growing footprint, including Beijing\u2019s military base in neighboring Djibouti.<\/p>\n<p>The UAE is the territory\u2019s biggest investor, through port operator DP World, which has invested <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/10\/08\/2025\/dubai-ports-giant-pushes-for-somaliland-recognition\" rel=\"no-referrer\">more than $400 million<\/a> to expand a facility to handle the largest cargo vessels and is building a manufacturing and trade zone nearby in Berbera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdilahi said the backlash over Israel\u2019s announcement was expected. \u201cNegative reactions were mostly based on interests, or some didn\u2019t know the history of Somaliland,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are older than Somalia, and we voluntarily merged with Somalia because we wanted to unite all Somali-speaking territories at that time.\u201d He said Somaliland has long pursued recognition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}