A plane carrying a delegation of Israelis landed on Wednesday in Khartom, Sudan, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported. The plane, which left from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport first stopped in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and is reportedly scheduled to return to Israel on Wednesday evening.
Kan, citing the Saudi Al-Arabiya news channel, reported that the delegation is from the Israeli military and that it was set to meet with Sudanese General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led a military coup in Sudan in October, and with army commanders.
An Israeli delegation reportedly visited Sudan in November, just days after the coup. Sudan and Israel agreed to normalize ties last year as part of the framework of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, and the Sudanese government approved the repeal of the country’s 1958 boycott of Israel law in April 2021. Full normalization likely would require an elected government.
Prior to the coup, military and civilian groups in Sudan had been sharing power since the country’s former leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 following months of street protests. The country was moving toward civilian rule and a democratic election by the end of 2023. The military was scheduled to hand over leadership of the council to a civilian leader in the coming months though no specific date had been set. Burhan has said he is committed to handing over power to a civilian government and to protect the new government during the transition period.