Uganda, Israel may open embassies

KAMPALA: Uganda is “studying” the possibility of opening an embassy in Jerusalem, President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Such a move would be seen internationally as a statement of support for Israel’s claim for the city of Jerusalem to be its capital, a potential political win for Netanyahu less than a month before a national election on March 2.

“If a friend says I want your embassy here rather than there I don’t see why there would be…,” Museveni said before trailing off and continuing: “we are really working, we’re studying that.”

“You open an embassy in Jerusalem and I will open an embassy in Kampala,” promised Netanyahu.

“We hope to do this in the near future.”

Palestinians claim East Jerusalem – captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war – as their own capital.

But a peace plan presented last week by US President Donald Trump envisaged a Palestinian capital outside Jerusalem’s municipal limits.

The Palestinian leadership has rejected the plan and cut all ties with the US and Israel, including those relating to security.

Uganda and Israel have no embassy in each other’s country, though Museveni is a long-standing ally of Israel, which trains some elements of the Ugandan security forces.

Israel’s embassy in Nairobi, in neighbouring Kenya, currently handles its relations with Uganda.

As well as the embassy issue, Netanyahu said Israel and Uganda were exploring the possibility of having direct flights and closer co-operation in cyber security.

“Israel is coming back to Africa and Africa is coming back to Israel in a big way,” he said.

Rights groups, critical of Museveni’s record on human rights, are unlikely to welcome the prospect of increased co-operation with Israel on cybersecurity. |