Washington: Israel and Sudan have agreed to take steps to normalise relations in a deal brokered with the help of the US, making Khartoum the third Arab government to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past two months.
US President Donald Trump, seeking re-election on November 3, sealed the agreement in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, senior US officials said.
Trump’s decision earlier this week to remove Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism paved the way for the deal with Israel, marking a foreign policy achievement for the Republican President as he seeks a second term trailing in opinion polls behind Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“The leaders agreed to the normalisation of relations between Sudan and Israel and to end the state of belligerence between their nations,” according to a joint statement issued by the three countries.
Israel and Sudan plan to begin by opening economic and trade relations, with an initial focus on agriculture, the joint statement said. A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such issues as formal establishment of diplomatic ties would be resolved later.
Trump announced on Monday he would take Sudan off the terrorism list once it had deposited $US335 million ($470 million) it had pledged to pay in compensation. Khartoum has since placed the funds in a special account for victims of al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Read the article by Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland in The Sydney Morning Herald.