Bashir Goth is in the unusual position of serving as a diplomat from a place that almost no one else in the world considers a country. That changed last month, when Israel became the first state to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent nation. 

That gives Goth an opening he has been seeking since he arrived in Washington in 2018: a chance to try to convince the United States to now follow Israel’s lead and recognize the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia that has governed itself for 35 years. 

“Our friends will be more active now, more vigorous, more encouraged by the Israeli recognition,” Goth told Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, for a meeting on Tuesday with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi. Goth is hoping to capitalize on the rare occurrence of Somaliland being in the news, in part by attempting to rally American Jews to his cause. 

“We always built very strong relations and engagements with Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C., and they are more active now, more than any time before,” said Goth. “I think they will also be very, very helpful in pushing this forward.” 

Major American Jewish organizations, however, have not weighed in on Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland, except for a post on X by AIPAC that took aim at Qatar for criticizing Israel’s actions. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has urged American recognition of Somaliland, but President Donald Trump said this week that he would not do so. 

Goth, ever the diplomat, did a close read of Trump’s comments and held tight to one sentence that gave him hope — Trump told The New York Post last month that he would “study” the matter.

“Regarding President Trump, I think if you look at the end, at the last sentence of his statement, with that interview, he said, ‘At the end of the day, I study everything,’” Goth said. 

Washington considers Somaliland part of Somalia, a policy in keeping with the African Union and the United Nations. And while geopolitics factor into Goth’s pitch — he suggests that a Somaliland aligned with Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and the U.S. could be a bulwark to China, Turkey and Somalia — his message to American officials is all about politics.

“The Somaliland story always resonated with the Republican community here in Washington, D.C., and in America, because it’s a country that has built itself from ruins, from rivers, to what it is now — its democracy and infrastructure — by its own resources, ‘by its bootstraps,’ as the Americans say,” said Goth. “We will be part of contributing to the prosperity and peace that the current American government is looking for.”

News reports last year suggested that Israel had approached Somaliland officials about the prospect of relocating Palestinians from Gaza, which Somaliland has denied. Goth called it a “false statement.” 

Israel has sought ties with Somaliland in part because of its strategic proximity to Yemen, which could offer Israel a better position from which to attack the Iran-aligned Houthis. Deqa Qasim, the director of the political department in Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry, told Israel’s N12 on Thursday that Jerusalem and Hargeisa were discussing setting up an Israeli military base in the African territory, contradicting a previous denial that such an agreement was on the table. Goth would not say whether Somaliland had agreed to allow Israel to do so, but he did not deny it.

“There’s nothing that says we cannot have a security pact or agreement with Israel, and I can leave it like that,” he said.

Israeli recognition of Somaliland, home to 6 million people, also allows Goth to make the case that Israeli prosperity could be a beacon for Somaliland — an example, perhaps, of making the desert bloom.

“We could be the Singapore of the Horn of Africa, if we are given the chance. And there is no better example to look at than Israel. And what you achieved in Israel. To have our recognition from Israel will open that prosperity, I think, for us, in technology [and] agriculture,” Goth said. “That would be, actually, a role model for us.”