Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, in a message through Twitter announced his condolences for the death of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa.
President Guelleh wrote in his message that he had sent his condolences to UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nayan, crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the Emirati Armed Forces, appealing to them as “brothers.”
The message, in which Guelleh invokes for the late ruler “eternal peace and the repose of the soul in paradise,” has aroused interest among observers, who have interpreted it as an attempt to soothe relations between the two countries, which have entered a deep crisis since February 2018, following the decision to nationalize the port of Doraleh and terminate the facility’s 30-year operating contract signed in 2006 by the Emirates company DP World.
