Protests in Khartoum as Israel, Sudan vow to normalise ties

Sudanese protesters angered by their interim government’s decision to move forward with normalising ties with Israel took to the streets of Khartoum on Sunday and Monday.

Demonstrators in the Sudanese capital held banners reading 'no to normalisation' and 'Palestine is not for sale' after Israel and Sudan’s top diplomats met last week in Khartoum and agreed to advance plans to formalise ties.

Protests were held in front of the Sudanese foreign ministry, among other locations.

Several political parties and civil society groups had already voiced their anger in the days following the meeting, calling it a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and accusing Israel of meddling in Sudanese affairs.

Opposition groups outraged by Cohen’s visit questioned how an interim government could move forward with normalisation.

General Burhan came to power in October 2021, when he led a military coup to oust a civilian transitional government. A date for democratic elections in Sudan has yet to be fixed.

Upon arrival in Tel Aviv after the Khartoum meeting, Cohen said a normalisation agreement between Israel and Sudan would be signed within the year.

Sudan in January 2021 formally agreed to normalise relations with Israel in a quid pro quo for the United States removing it from its list of "state sponsors of terrorism", but ties were never formalised.

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, then the intelligence minister, led that same month the first official delegation to the Arab northeast African country.

In 2020 the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco all normalised relations with Israel as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, in a move that sparked near-unanimous condemnation from the Palestinians, as well as the majority of the Arab public, according to opinion polls.

Upon arrival in Tel Aviv after the Khartoum meeting, Cohen said a normalisation agreement between Israel and Sudan would be signed within the year.

Cohen reportedly told Israeli public radio that ‘six or seven’ countries from the Arab and Islamic world will soon be normalising ties with Israel.