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Sudanese government official: ‘We need ties with Israel’

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Dismissing the Palestinian question, Dagalo said, “We don’t have a border with the Palestinians.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Sudan has a strategic interest in establishing relations with Israel, said senior Sudanese government official Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo to local Sudanese media on Friday.

“Israel is developed. The entire world works with Israel. For development, for agriculture — we need Israel,” Dagalo, who is Sudan’s deputy head of state, told Juba24 News.

Israel Hayom reported that Dagalo said to reporters, “It is in Sudan’s interest to establish relations with Israel. Our removal from the list of countries that support terror hinges on it.”

When asked about potential blowback from normalizing ties with Israel, Dagalo said, “We’re not scared of anyone. But these will be relations, not normalization. Relations, not normalization. Okay? We’re following this line.”

Dismissing the Palestinian question, Dagalo said, “We don’t have a border with the Palestinians.”

He noted that “even neighboring countries have already established ties with Israel,” referring to Israel’s decades-old peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt.

Dagalo emphasized that while “the Palestinian cause is important, and we ought to stand with the Palestinian people,” Sudan’s first priority should be adopting policies which benefit Sudan.

“Whatever the interest of Sudan is, we shall pursue it,” he said.

Dagalo’s remarks come after wide speculation that Sudan will be the next country to establish relations with Israel.

Shortly after the announcement of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain peace deals with Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Sudan and met with Transitional Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok.

Pomepo tweeted that their discussion included “Sudan’s commitment to deepening the Sudan-Israel relationship.”

An Israeli government official told Israel Hayom in August that “Sudan will also declare peace with Israel in a few weeks. We are close to that and it will happen.”

Despite these developments, it’s still unclear when or if a peace deal between Sudan and Israel will come to fruition.

In August, Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Haidar Badawi was dismissed from his post for saying that Sudan “looks forward to a peace agreement with Israel.”