Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off a four-nation African visit in Uganda, his latest effort to forge deeper diplomatic and commercial ties on the continent, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

"The African continent constitutes vast potential for Israel," Netanyahu said before the trip, which began Monday and will include meetings with the leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda.

The Israeli leader seeks East African allies to bolster support for Israel in international forums, including the United Nations, as he faces criticism from Western countries over the dim prospects for a resolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that Arab nations band together to propose resolutions that affect Israel at the UN and at other international bodies.

A report last week from the Quartet for the Middle East peace process, comprising the UN, US, Russia and the European Union, criticized both the current Israeli and Palestinian approaches to peace. It highlighted Israel’s settlement enterprise in the West Bank as an obstacle to a two-state solution, drawing a scathing response from Israel.

Israel hopes to strengthen ties enough to secure an observer seat at the 54-nation African Union, an effort to shore up long-term African support at the UN, according to a report from South Africa’s Afro-Middle East Centre. Those efforts were bolstered Wednesday by Ethiopia’s election to the UN Security Council, where it joins Egypt and Senegal.

Source: MENA