Sudan, Israel could reach peace deal soon

Less than a week after the UAE and Israel announced their historic deal that will normalise relations between the Arab country and the self-declared Jewish state, Israeli Minister of Intelligence Eli Cohen said that Sudan is expected to follow in the UAE’s footsteps.

“There will be, this year, an additional [agreement] with an African country, in my estimation Sudan, that will also sign a peace agreement with the State of Israel,” Israeli news website Times of Israel quoted Cohen as saying.

The Israeli official’s statements came in an interview with Channel 13.

Last February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s ruling body, the Sovereign Council. The meeting set off controversy and sparked pro-Palestine protests in Sudan.

Egypt was the first Arab state to sign a peace deal and normalise ties with Israel in 1979, under then-President Anwar Sadat, who was subsequently assassinated by militants in 1981.

The UAE is only the fourth Arab state after Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania to establish ties with Israel. The latter however later halted relations in response to the occupation state’s 2014 war on Gaza.

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