Somaliland seeking ‘security partnership’ with Israel to counter Yemen
The Cradle, May 2, 2026 —
Yemen’s armed forces have threatened to close the strategic Bab al-Mandab waterway if the US and Israel launch attacks on Iran from the Red Sea.
A senior official in Somaliland said the breakaway territory in northern Somalia is ready to cooperate with Israel to confront the “threat” from the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) to the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on 2 May.
The official said that any “disruption of maritime security” would push Somaliland to expand its relations with Israel, including to the level of a security alliance.
The official noted that Somaliland currently cooperates with partners such as the US and UAE, which have a presence in the territory’s port of Berbera, and that a similar partnership with Israel is possible.
The UAE operates the Berbera port, using it as a logistics hub to transfer arms and mercenaries to fight for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are accused of committing a genocide of non-Arab tribes in Sudan.
Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991. It is located on the Horn of Africa on the Sea of Aden, opposite southern Yemen.
In December 2025, Israel became the first and only UN member state to recognize Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state.
The YAF has military power over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a narrow maritime chokepoint between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Like the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, Bab al-Mandab is a critical maritime route through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil is shipped.
The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed due to Iranian threats and maritime insurance cancellations since the start of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic that began on 28 February.
Since the closure of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has become increasingly dependent on a pipeline near Bab al-Mandab to export its oil.
In response to Iran’s closure of Hormuz, Washington imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and began seizing Iranian ships transporting oil to Asian markets.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US Navy was acting “like pirates” and conducting a “profitable business” by seizing Iranian ships and cargo near the Strait of Hormuz.
In early April, Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister, warned that “the unified command of the Resistance front views Bab al-Mandab as it does Hormuz.”
Yemen, a close ally of Iran and member of the Axis of Resistance, previously closed Bab al-Mandab to ships linked to the US and Israel in response to Tel Aviv’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza that began in 2023.
On 28 March, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced their forces would intervene if the Red Sea were used by the US and Israel to attack Iran.
“Our fingers are on the trigger for direct military intervention,” the YAF declared.