Israel Seeks Normalization with Sudan, Uganda

Israel and Sudan agreed to normalize their relations, following a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Sovereign Council Chief Abdel Fattah El Burhan.

Netanyahu said that he discussed "normalization" of relations during his meeting with senior Sudanese politicians in Uganda. The Israeli premier said on his Twitter account that he had met with Burhan on Monday.

The meeting represented a major change in the relations between the two countries, which are theoretically at war.

Meanwhile, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that Kampala is studying the possibility of opening an embassy in the occupied Jerusalem.

Such a move would be seen at the international level as a statement of support for Israel's declaration of Jerusalem as its capital, in a possible political victory for Netanyahu less than a month before the March 2 general elections.

"When you open an embassy in Jerusalem, we will open an embassy in Kampala ... We hope to do that in the near future," Netanyahu said.

The last week's US President Donald Trump's peace plan stipulated a Palestinian capital outside the borders of the Jerusalem municipality.

The Palestinian leadership rejected this plan and on Saturday severed all relations with the United States and Israel, including those related to security. 

The Ugandan Entebbe airport witnessed an exciting operation in 1976 by Israeli commandos to rescue about 100 passengers, most of them Israelis, who were on a French passenger plane hijacked by Palestinian and German gunmen. Yonatan, Netanyahu's older brother who was one of the leaders of that operation, was killed in this incident.

Netanyahu said that whenever he visited Uganda, he was "very affected" for this reason. Three passengers and all the kidnappers also died in the operation.

In addition to the embassy issue, Netanyahu said that Israel and Uganda discussed the possibility of establishing direct flights and closer cooperation in the field of electronic security.

He added, "Israel has started returning to Africa and Africa has started to return to Israel significantly."