Israeli Intelligence Minister Says ‘Several Months’ before Deal with Sudan Cemented

Cohen became the first Israeli minister to make an official visit to the African state earlier in the week, after the country agreed to join the Abraham Accords and normalize its ties with the Zionist entity.

“First, the Sudanese need to eliminate the law that right now prohibits having any relations with Israel,” Cohen told i24NEWS in an interview aired on Thursday.

Circumstances of a transitional government and traditionally hostile or suspicious public attitudes toward ‘Israel’ have raised initial difficulties in reaching the normalization announcement — in contrast to the fast-paced negotiations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

In this context, Cohen cited Israeli relations with Egypt and Ethiopia as a gauge that led Khartoum to understand that it is within “their own interests to have relations with Israel.”

He summed the high-profile meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Yassin Abdel-Hadi as “very good and positive.”

The Israeli minister relayed that the sides signed a memorandum of understanding in fields of security, intelligence and economy, while agreeing to sign another memorandum on more specific economic issues.