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On Saturday, Sudan’s top army general praised recent security cooperation with Israel, which he said aided the arrest of several suspected militants in Sudan.
During an interview with Sudan’s state-run TV channel that aired this weekend, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the Head of the ruling Sovereign Council, explained that the exchange of intelligence between Israel and Sudan has enabled them to dismantle and arrest suspected militant groups in Sudan that “could have undermined the security of Sudan and the region”.
Until 2020, when the two countries agreed to normalise relations as part of the Abraham Accords, there were no official ties between Israel and Sudan. The agreement came 53 years after the infamous Khartoum Conference in which Sudan called for no recognition of the State of Israel. In what became known as the ‘Three Nos’ of Khartoum, the Arab League pledged that there would be “no peace with Israel, no recognition with Israel, no negotiation with it” following the Six-Day War.
General Burhan stated that it is “legitimate” for Sudanese security and intelligence agencies to have ties and visits with Israel, but stressed that the relationship is not of a political nature and that no senior Sudanese official has visited the country. In recent weeks, Sudanese and Israeli security officials have met on various visits; a Sudanese security delegation visited Tel Aviv last week which followed a visit in January by Israeli officials, including Mossad intelligence officers, to Khartoum. Prior to this a rare meeting was held, in Abu Dhabi in October, between the then-Sudanese Justice Minister, Nasredeen Abdulbari, and Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll and Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej.
