Sudan denies it will send delegation to visit Israel

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan denied on Friday reports that it would send its first delegation to Israel months after a deal for ties between the two countries. Two Sudanese sources said Khartoum had scrapped a planned visit.

Sources had previously told Reuters that a Sudanese delegation comprising security and intelligence officials would travel to Israel next week.

Sudan agreed to take steps towards normal ties with Israel last year in a deal brokered by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration. This month, Sudan’s cabinet voted to repeal a 1958 law to boycott Israel.

The issue is divisive in Sudan, which is going through a delicate political transition following the overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Two official Sudanese sources told Reuters that an invitation to visit Israel had been accepted, but that plans had later changed. They gave no explanation for the change.

Sudan’s general intelligence service said “news circulating on some media and social media about the visit of a security delegation to Sudan was not true,” state news agency SUNA reported. Sudan’s security and defense council also denied the news.

The deal for Sudan to normalize ties with Israel was struck alongside normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, and came as the US agreed to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Sudan’s military is seen to have led the move, but civilian groups with which it is sharing power are more reluctant and say the deal must be approved by a yet-to-be formed transitional parliament.