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Israel in talks with Comoros to establish normalisation ties

October 19, 2021 at 2:08 pm

Azali Assoumani, President, Union of the Comoros addresses the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2021 in New York City. [Timothy A. Clary – Pool/Getty Images]

Israel and Comoros are currently in talks for the purpose of establishing full diplomatic relations, citing a senior diplomatic source, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Comoros is a Muslim-majority island based in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and the mainland countries of Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the only Arab country entirely in the Southern Hemisphere and a member of the Arab League.

The United States reportedly brought the two countries together for discussions on the Arab League member establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish state and the talks have continued on a bilateral basis.

This comes after Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister, Esawi Frej, told Emirati website Erem News yesterday, that Qatar, Tunisia, Oman and Malaysia may join the Abraham Accords.

“Every Arab country in the Middle East, even the hostile countries, we have direct and indirect relations with them. I see on the far horizon that all the countries of the Middle East will be within a union,” he said.

Last year’s normalisation deals signed by the UAE and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco, were denounced by Palestinians who claimed the states had abandoned a unified position under which Arab countries would make peace only after a two-state solution, negotiations for which have been deadlocked for years.

Comoros announced in 1994 that it had established diplomatic ties with the occupation state, but the move did not materialise.

In 2013, the Arab country pursued legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the deaths of Turkish citizens on board the ‘Mavi Marmara’, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla which tried to break the Israeli siege of Gaza in 2010. The ships in the flotilla were boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters. Nine activists were shot and killed, while a tenth died later of his wounds.

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