Sudan’s top general has lauded recent ties with Israel in a Saturday interview, saying that intelligence sharing between the two former adversaries helped arrest suspected gunnies in his country.
The two countries normalized relations late in 2020 as part of a series of US-brokered deals between Israel and four Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Israel and Sudan have since crafted security and intelligence relationships that have seen officials exchange meetings repeatedly in unannounced trips.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council, said exchange of intelligence has enabled Sudan to dismantle and arrest suspected bully boy groups in Sudan that "could have undermined the security of Sudan and the region."
Speaking in an interview with Sudan’s state-run TV aired late Saturday, Burhan said it is legitimate for Sudanese security and intelligence agencies to have ties and exchange visits with Israel.
He insisted his country’s relations with Israel are not of a political nature, saying that no senior Sudanese official has yet made a visit to Israel. He did not elaborate.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. Israel has been silent on the October military coup in Sudan, led by Burhan, and the ensuing unrest there, indicating it intends to maintain normalized ties with Sudan.
Sudanese and Israeli officials exchanged unannounced visits in recent weeks. Most recently, a Sudanese security delegation visited Tel Aviv last week, following a visit by Israeli officials, including Mossad intelligence officers, to Khartoum in January.
In October, the then Sudanese justice minister, Nasredeen Abdulbari, and Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll and Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej held a rare public meeting in the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi.
The normalization of ties with Israel paved the way for Sudan to reintegrate into the international community after two decades of isolation under former autocratic President Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
Sudan was once one of Israel’s fiercest rivals in the Arab world. It hosted the landmark Arab conference after the 1967 Mideast war at which eight Arab countries vowed never to make peace with Israel.
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