Israel PM announces resumption of relations with Guinea

Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced that Israel has resumed relations with West African country Guinea, keeping with a declaration he made during his recent landmark visit to the continent.

‘‘During my visit to Africa I said that an African country would soon declare the resumption of relations – this happened today with Guinea,’‘ a tweet from the office of the Prime Minister read.

During my visit to Africa I said that an African country would soon declare the resumption of relations – this happened today with Guinea.

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) July 20, 2016

He hinted that another country would be added in the coming days, describing it as ‘‘part of a process that is gaining momentum and is very important.’‘ He reiterated that the current diplomatic overtures is opening Israel to Africa.

The Prime Minister, between July 4 – July 8 arrived for a tour in East Africa. The tour started in Uganda where he visited the spot his brother Yoni Netanyahu died in 1976.

He subsequently headed to Burundi, Kenya, and ended his tour in Ethiopia. On each leg of his visit, Israel signed bilateral agreements on areas of common interest with his hosts. He made a case for Israel regaining its observer status in the African Union and had support in that direction from President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kenya.

On the topic of wooing Africa diplomatically, the Ugandan Daily Monitor quoted Mr Netanyahu in a pre-arrival interview as saying, “I’m very open about it, that’s true, why should there be such a dissonance between these strong bilateral ties and the multilateral ties? Why not correct this absurdity?”

“Israel was blacklisted in Africa, basically kicked out by political pressure from many, many countries in which we were involved in the 60s and 70s and it took a while to change,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu, was the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Africa in over two decades.