On video: the president of Chad votes in the elections, a few days before he was killed by rebels (Photo: Reuters)
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen arrived today (Thursday) for a visit to Sudan and met with the commander of the army, General Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan, according to the Saudi Al-Hadath channel.
why is it important
This is the first visit of an Israeli minister to Sudan in two years.
The previous visit, in January 2021, was also by Eli Cohen when he served as Minister of Intelligence.
First visit to the country in two years.
Eli Cohen (Photo: Reuven Castro)
reminder
In October 2020, Israel and Sudan announced the beginning of a normalization process in relations.
On January 5, 2021, the Sudanese Minister of Justice, Nasr al-Din Abdel-Bari, signed the declaration of accession to the Abraham Accords in the presence of American Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who visited Khartoum.
However, secondly, Sudan has not yet signed an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and, to a certain extent, Morocco have done.
At the beginning of 2021, Israel forwarded to Sudan a draft agreement to establish diplomatic relations.
The Sudanese, who were waiting to get the backing of the Biden administration for the agreement, have not signed it to date and have not even given their comments to the draft.
The previous government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid tried to reach an agreement with the Sudanese on the establishment of diplomatic relations.
In September 2021, a tripartite summit was almost held on the sidelines of the UN Assembly with the participation of Prime Minister Bennett, Sudanese leaders General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and US President Joe Biden.
But the talks on the subject did not mature.
In October 2021, Lapid visited Washington to convince the American administration to give priority to the issue and bring about an agreement between Israel and Sudan on the establishment of full diplomatic relations.
The Americans agreed to mobilize for the issue, but a week later General Burhan led a military coup in Sudan.
The big picture
Following the military coup in Sudan, the Americans imposed sanctions on the military faction in the Sudanese government led by General Burhan and froze the 700 million dollar American aid package that was promised to Sudan as part of the normalization process with Israel.
The Biden administration also made it clear to Sudan and Israel that until the military coup is canceled and until there is no civilian government in Sudan to continue the process of transition to democracy, the US will not support an agreement between Sudan and Israel.
In recent months, it seems that Burhan and the army are ready to take a step back and end the coup.
A political framework agreement was even signed between the army and the civilian factions on an outline for the return of the civilian government.
However, the agreement has not yet been implemented.
news
Political-political
Tags
Sudan
Eli Cohen