Israeli Delegation Reportedly Visits Sudan for Talks

Exactly one month after the initial announcement, plans by Israel and Sudan to establish formal diplomatic relations began to take shape on Monday, as the first official delegation from Jerusalem reportedly arrived in Khartoum for a series of meetings. Government officials discussed agricultural, technological and health care cooperation for several hours before the Israeli team returned home later that evening, Reuters reported citing an unnamed source. The envoys from Jerusalem met separately with United States representatives in Sudan as well, according to the report. The rather limited get-together is expected to be followed by an expanded, more high-profile summit later next month, similar to the recent meetings between Bahraini, Emirati and Israeli diplomats. On Tuesday, however, the Sudanese government said it was not aware of a visit to the country by an Israeli delegation. Sudan became the third country to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with the Jewish state, as part of a three-way deal with Washington in which Khartoum was removed from the state sponsors of terror list and assured it would not be further prosecuted for its role in the 1998 attacks outside the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.