Thu 22 October 2020:
An Israeli delegation made a rare visit to Sudan on Wednesday to discuss normalizing ties, Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio said, as a minister predicted a possible diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries.
Kan radio gave no further details about the discussions held in Khartoum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment when asked about prospects for a breakthrough with Sudan.
In a foreign-policy flourish ahead of his re-election bid, top aides to US President Donald Trump this week escorted Israeli delegates to Bahrain and UAE delegates to Israel, cementing Israel’s new, US-brokered relations with the Gulf states.
Khartoum’s move has been linked to the recent US decision to remove Sudan from list of state sponsors of terrorism.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he hoped Sudan will soon recognize Israel.
“We continue to work to make the case to every country to recognize Israel,” Pompeo told reporters. “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. We hope that they’ll do that, and we hope that they’ll do that quickly.”
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said recently that normalizing ties with Israel was a “complicated” issue needing wide debate within society.
As reported in Haaretz daily, a rare direct flight departed from Israel to Khartoum on Wednesday. Israel Hayom learned that it was carrying a high-level Israeli delegation of Prime Minister’s Office and Mossad intelligence agency officials, who then met with their Sudanese counterparts in the transitional government.
The delegations were able to then reach a bilateral recognition agreement between Israel and Sudan.
Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis said that the United States would announce another deal establishing ties between Israel and an Arab or Muslim country before the US election.
“I have a reasonable basis to believe that the announcement will come before Nov. 3 – that, if you’ll permit me, is what I understand from my sources,” Akunis told Israel’s Army Radio.
Akunis said several countries were candidates to normalize relations with Israel. He did not name these, saying that it was “customary” to let the first official word come from Washington.
But US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman did not indicate any imminent diplomatic breakthrough.
“More nations that are in the Arab League will normalize and make peace with Israel, I have no doubt, it is a certainty. How many, in what order, I think everyone is just going to have to wait and see,” he told a conference hosted by Israel Hayom newspaper and the Kohelet Policy Forum think-tank.
