By COLlive reporter
Sudan, the third-largest country in the Arab world located in North-East Africa, is about to sign a historic peace deal with Israel, news reports are saying.
An Israeli official said an official announcement on the normalization of relations between both countries is expected this weekend.
President Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, are expected to discuss the projected timeline as the United States continues its diplomatic push to recognize Israel.
Sudan was a melting pot of Jewish families who arrived from the Middle East and North Africa, and settled along the Nile in the Sudanese towns of Khartoum, Khartoum North, Omdurman, and Wad Madani in the 1900s, according to “Tales of Jewish Sudan.”
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the relationship between Sudan’s Jewish community and its Muslim and Christian population became more strained, their website says.
After gaining its independence in 1956, Sudan joined the Arab League and hostility towards the Jewish community in the country reached its peak. The country has not recognized the State of Israel.
Israel Hayom reported that a high-level Israeli delegation of Prime Minister’s Office and Mossad intelligence agency officials flew to Sudan to meet their counterparts.
The expected Sudanese announcement of recognizing the Jewish state will join the historic Abraham Accords signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on September 15.
Recently, the U.S. announced that it was removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Sudan agreed to pay $335 million in compensation for families of American victims of terrorism.
“We continue to work to make the case to every country to recognize Israel,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters. “We are working diligently with them to make the case for why that’s in the Sudanese government’s best interest to make that sovereign decision. We hope that they’ll do that, and we hope that they’ll do that quickly.”
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