Sudan agrees to reactivate agreements with Qatar in first post-revolution meeting

"We have more than 36 agreements and protocols signed between both countries... We agreed to activate these agreements next week or the week after the Qatari delegation will visit Sudan," General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of Sudan's transitional sovereign council, was quoted as saying by Al-Jazeera.

Burhan travelled to the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday for meetings with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani.

The visit was the first by a Sudanese leader to the Gulf state since the Sudanese military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following months of popular protests.

Previously warm relations between Doha and Khartoum have been in uncertain waters since then.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, key backers of the Sudanese transitional regime, led a punishing economic and diplomatic blockade of Qatar until an agreement earlier this year.

Sudanese officials shunned talks with Qatar until late January, when the Qatari emir met with Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo. Widely known as Hemedti, Dagalo is a senior member of the Sudanese sovereign council and leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

There is now a larger appetite for strengthening ties in both countries. Sudan hopes to expand Qatar's $3.8 billion worth of investments in the country, according to Al-Jazeera.

The two leaders also disccused Khartoum's burgeoning ties with Israel, forged as part of a Trump administration push last year. Doha does not have ties with Israel.

Burhan reportedly described the normalisation controversy as an "internal issue" he would not discuss with Qatar.

The two also discussed Sudan's ongoing dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile, with Burhan describing his frustration that prior mediations "haven't reached yet a real solution".

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