Israel and Sudan have finalized discussions on normalizing ties and will announce the official establishment of diplomatic ties in the next several days, Israeli media reports said on Thursday.
The announcement will follow a trilateral phone call between US President Donald Trump, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, the transitional Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Walla News reported.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel Hayom reported that a delegation of senior Israeli officials traveled to Sudan on Wednesday to hold discussions on establishing official ties.
According to Walla, the Israeli officials who traveled to Sudan were Acting Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office Ronen Peretz and Netanyahu’s envoy to the Arab world “Maoz,” and were accompanied by Aryeh Lightstone, an adviser to US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and senior US defense official Miguel Correa.
An Israeli business jet made a rare direct flight from Tel Aviv to Khartoum on Wednesday, returning to Israel later the same day. It is only the second time a direct flight from Israel to Sudan has taken place, the first being an Israeli humanitarian medical aid flight to Sudan.
Tel Aviv to Khartoum, Sudan bizjet – this morning. 9H-VFJ
This is the 2nd known direct flight between the two countries (1st one, in reply)
It's been reported Sudan may be next to normalize relations w Israel, following Trump removing Sudan from state sponsors of terrorism list pic.twitter.com/zRT8cTKhUz
— avi scharf (@avischarf) October 21, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US has begun the process of removing Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list and hopes that Khartoum recognizes Israel, adding that the United States wants every nation “to recognize Israel, the rightful Jewish homeland, to acknowledge their fundamental right to exist as a country.”
“We are working diligently with them to make the case for why that’s in the Sudanese government’s best interest to make that sovereign decision,” Pompeo said. “We hope that they’ll do that, and we hope that they’ll do that quickly.”
Pompeo’s statements follow a report last week that the US imposed a 24-hour ultimatum on Sudan to establish ties with Israel in order to be removed from its terrorism list and a report this week that Sudan followed through on its pledge and transferred $335 million for American terror victims and their families.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
This is good news. No longer will rockets be fired from Sudan to Israel.
huju, “No longer will rockets be fired from Sudan to Israel” because Sudan, unlike Hamas and Hezbollah, did not receive Obama’s (ys) cash supplied to them by Iran. Your are a bitter and rotten looser.
Is this truly “peace”? I don’t know. It’s basically forced down their throat in exchange for money and other things Sudan desperately needs. This seems way weaker in terms of true “peace” then any of the peace deals ever reached between Israel and any country.
@UncleMo
Trump’s approach to peace/diplomatic deals has been historically and politically unique – whereas others have tried to placate their foes, and tried to conciliate themselves in the eyes of the world, Trump’s administration have bluntly declared that when a country and it’s leadership are calling “Death to America”, why should we continue to gift them millions of dollars and diplomatic favors. Instead of trying to pander to them in the hopes they’ll reciprocate with kindness back, rather cut off the funds and let them come crawling back begging to make a deal. That’s what he’s done, and it works. And it’s way stronger than (not “then” @UncleMo) than other peace deals, as they now know that they stand on shaky ground, that if they further upset the hand that feeds it it will cut them off, or even worse, bash them for it.
And by the way, in exchange re-negotiating for their funds and diplomatic favors, the US does not lose out, but on the contrary, they only cut a two-way deal that benefits the US too, and usually way more in the long run.