Three reports within 48 hours — a Somaliland presidential visit to Israel, talk of an Israeli base on Somaliland soil, and specific planning to forward-deploy Dolphin-class submarines at Berbera port — signal a strategic move to 'bookend' the Hormuz-Bab al-Mandab maritime axis. Berbera, located on the Horn of Africa at the southern approach to the Red Sea, would give Israel a forward operating position to monitor activity through Bab al-Mandab, complementing monitoring capability at the Strait of Hormuz at the northern end of the Gulf of Aden-Suez corridor. The two chokepoints together handle roughly 30% of global container traffic and 40% of seaborne oil flows. The development comes amid ongoing US-Iran negotiations over Hormuz and could reshape regional naval posture and shipping risk assessments for the critical east-west corridor.
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