A senior Sudanese official has resigned over the surprise meeting in Uganda between the leader of the Sudan’s ruling council, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sudan’s privately owned Al-Intibaha newspaper reports.
Afterwards Mr Netanyahu said they had agreed to co-operate towards normalising ties marred by Sudan’s decades-long boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
But this was a step too far for the director of the Foreign Relations Department on Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Ambassador Rashad Faraj al-Tayib,
In a statement, Mr Tayib described Mr Netanyahu as the leader of “the entity that occupies the al-Aqsa Mosque” in East Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa is one of Islam’s holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews. The compound is a source of religious and political tension between Israel and the Palestinians.
Gen Burhan’s meeting with Mr Netanyahu has created a storm in Sudan, with the information minister and former ruling party criticising it, saying it was a deviation from the position of many Sudanese.
However, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stressed that Sudan’s position on the Palestinian issue remained unchanged, despite the meeting.
BBC
