Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened Somaliland’s embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eighth top-level diplomatic mission in the capital.

Abdullahi is making his first state visit abroad since becoming president. In December, Israel became the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991.

The Muslim nation’s embassy is in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim hi-tech park.

Somaliland’s first ambassador to a foreign country presented his diplomatic credentials to President Isaac Herzog in March.

Dr. Mohamed Hagi, appointed in February, had been serving as an adviser to Abdullahi, and was an architect of Israel-Somaliland relations.

The United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Fiji also have embassies in Jerusalem, while other countries — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia — have embassy branches in the capital. Other countries refuse to move their embassies to the city so long as Palestinian claims to its eastern neighborhoods have not been addressed in a peace agreement.

Sa’ar met with Abdullahi earlier at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, revealing in a readout from his office that the two had also met at the ministry in October, in secret, two months before Israel’s recognition.

“I will always be proud of the privilege I had to write, with you and your people, the first pages in the story of the Israel-Somaliland relationship. I am certain this partnership will continue to grow stronger for the benefit of both our nations,” Sa’ar said, thanking Abdillahi for his “historic” decision to open an........

© The Times of Israel