The spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry has been fired after allegedly making unauthorized remarks, indicating that there were contacts with Israel regarding the normalization of ties.
The development on Wednesday comes after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel announced last week that they would establish diplomatic ties, a deal declared by the Palestinians as a “betrayal” of their cause.
The agreement makes the UAE only the third Arab nation – after Egypt and Jordan – to have full ties with Israel.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Qamar al-Dinhas dismissed Haidar Badawi from his position as spokesman and head of the media division “at the ministry, a statement from the official SUNA news agency said on Wednesday.
It came a day after Badawi said Sudan “looked forward to concluding a peace agreement with Israel”.
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“There is no reason to continue hostility between Sudan and Israel,” Badawi was quoted as saying by Sky News Arabia.
“We deny that there is any communication” with Israel, “he added, adding that both countries would benefit greatly from a deal.
Badawi’s remarks immediately drew a promise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do whatever it takes” to pick up a deal.
Qamar al-Din tried to distance himself from Badawi’s comments, saying they were received “with surprise”. He insists his ministry has not discussed the issue of ties with Israel.
In February, Netanyahu met with General Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional government, during a secret trip to Uganda, where both leaders agreed to normalize ties, according to Israeli officials.
A senior Palestinian official at the time had described the meeting as a “stab in the back of the Palestinian people”.
“President Burhan put Sudan on the right track with his meeting with the Israeli prime minister,” Badawi said.
‘Ccommunication ‘between the two states
Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohen told Israeli news site Ynet in an interview that he believes the talks with Sudan will lead to a deal.
“There is communication between the two states and I believe it will evolve towards the progress of an agreement between the countries. But we have to see, we have to wait. Is it right for Israel and Sudan? The answer is yes,” he said.
A Sudanese government official told the Associated Press on Tuesday that talks between Sudanese and Israeli officials had been going on for months, with the help of Egypt, the UAE and the United States.
“It’s a matter of time. We’ll finalize everything,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
“The Emirati movement encouraged us and helped calm voices within the government who feared backwardness from the Sudanese public.”
An Israeli deal with Sudan would mark another backlog for the Palestinians, who have long relied on the Arab world to pressure Israel to make concessions to them as a condition of normalization. That wall of Arab support had long served as one of the few points of the Palestinian levy against Israel.
Sudan, a majority of the Arab nation, hosted the post-war Arab National Conference in 1967, in which eight Arab countries approved the “three now”: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations.
But in recent years, those hostilities have softened.
Israel previously considered Sudan a security threat because of Iran’s alleged use of the country as a channel for smuggling ammunition into the occupied Gaza Strip.
Since President Omar al-Bashir was ousted last year, Khartoum has distanced himself from Iran and no longer poses such a threat, Israeli officials say.
Sudan is now on a fragile path to democracy, following a popular uprising that led the army to al-Bashir in April 2019. A military-civilian government rules the country, with elections scheduled for late 2022.
At the time of the Burhan-Netanyahu summit, the Sudanese army said talks with Israel were an attempt to end Sudan’s status as an international pariah state.
“History!” said Netanyahu, who had fought for his policy survival at home, in a tweet at the time.
Sudan is desperate to lift sanctions linked to its mention by the US as a state sponsor of “terror”. That would be an important step towards ending its isolation and revamping its sluggish economy. The US and Israel are strong allies.
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