Mossad Team Visited Sudan After Coup

A Mossad delegation traveled to Sudan after last week’s military coup, Israeli media reported Monday night.

The assessment is that the purpose of the trip was to ensure the continuation of the process of normalization between Israel and Sudan, which began when Sudan joined the Abraham Accords in 2020. Sudan has yet to open an official diplomatic mission in Israel or dispatch a diplomatic envoy to take charge of bilateral ties.

Last week, Sudan’s military seized power, dissolving the transitional government hours after troops arrested the prime minister, and thousands flooded the streets to protest the coup that threatened the country’s shaky progress toward democracy.

Security forces opened fire on some of them, and three protesters were killed, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee, which also said 80 people were wounded.

The takeover, which drew condemnation from the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, comes more than two years after protesters forced the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and just weeks before the military was supposed to hand over the leadership of the council that runs the country over to civilians.

Some three weeks ago, the Saudi Al-Arabiya outlet reported that a Sudanese security delegation had visited Israel. According to that report, the visit lasted two days and participating representatives discussed relations between the two countries.

Not long after the reported visit to Israel, senior Israeli and Sudanese officials held a rare public meeting in Abu Dhabi.

Sudanese Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari met with Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej, and the officials pledged to strengthen the nascent ties between Jerusalem and Khartoum.

Roll said the sides agreed on future cooperation. “Our goal is to join hands in technological training in order to help young people of all sides” enter the modern labor market. “We also spoke about the importance of normalizing the relations between both countries,” he added.

“The two agreed [on] promoting joint projects and activities,” Frej said and quoted Abdulbari as saying it was important to “strengthen human bonds.”