Trump Announces Relations Normalization Between Israel, Sudan

Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that Sudan and Israel have agreed to normalize relations between one another.

White House spokesman Gad Deer stated that US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Sudan had reached an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries.

The spokesman said: "President Donald Trump announced that Sudan and Israel have agreed to normalize relations. Another big step towards establishing peace in the Middle East with another country that joins the Abraham Agreement."

A joint statement today stated that US President Donald Trump, President of the Sudanese Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone today.

The statement indicated that the parties discussed Sudan's historic progress towards democracy and advancing peace in the region.

America said it would take steps to restore Sudan's sovereign immunity and work with international partners, to ease Sudan's debt burden.

The statement also indicated that delegations from each country would meet within weeks to negotiate cooperation agreements on agriculture, aviation and migration.

Trump also said after the call that in a few months, everyone would join the "Abraham" agreement.

White House adviser Jared Kushner also said that other countries will make peace with Israel, and he is confident that the conflict with the Palestinians will be resolved as well.

On his part, Netanyahu said after Trump's call that the circle of peace was expanding rapidly.

Reuters earlier quoted an American official, who requested anonymity, as saying that the US President Donald Trump's decision earlier this week to remove Sudan from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism helped in paving the way for Khartoum to become the latest Arab country to reach an agreement on rapprochement with Israel.

On Thursday, media reports revealed a secret visit by US and Israeli officials to Khartoum, on Wednesday, for talks on a possible improvement of relations with the former opponent, Sudan.

The website "Walla" claimed that two of Netanyahu's advisers and two Trump advisers met with Burhan, secretly, in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, under the or pretext of preparing for the announcement of the normalization agreement between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said, in an interview with Channel 13 News, that he believed that Israel "is very close to normalizing relations with Sudan."

The Hebrew newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" revealed that Israel had received a message that normalization with Sudan would take place before the American elections.

On the other hand, the head of the Israeli intelligence service "Mossad", Yossi Cohen, revealed in closed talks that Saudi Arabia is awaiting the American presidential elections to present a "gift" to the elected president, according to Israeli media.