Sudanese military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday refuted Western threats of sanctions tied to protests in the country, reported Africa News. He also said that meetings between Sudanese and Israeli officials were for security cooperation and not politics.
Burhan led a military coup in October last year that ended a partnership between the army and civilian parties which was meant to lead to democratic elections. The coup resulted in months of protests as well as Western condemnation. The UN, the US, and other Western government have pressured the military to end the crackdown on protesters and restore a civilian-led government to complete the country’s transition.
According to a toll by medics, at least 79 protesters have lost their lives in the protests so far.
In his first interview on state television since the coup, Burhan said the United States government was receiving inaccurate information.
“Sanctions and the threat of them are not useful,” he said.
Al-Burhan said ties between the former adversaries were not of political nature, adding that only Sudanese security and intelligence officials paid visits to Israel. He confirmed that meetings between Israeli and Sudanese officials had not been high-level and that no senior Sudanese official has yet made a visit to Israel.
“Till this moment no prominent political figure paid any visit (to Israel)” the Sudanese military leader said.
He added that the exchange of information between the officials of the two countries allowed the country to arrest many militant organizations that could have destabilized the security of Sudan. However, he did not elaborate further on the issue.
Notably, the relations between Sudan and Israel normalized late in 2020 as part of a series of US-brokered deals between Israel and four Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The agreement paved the way for Sudan to reintegrate into the international community after two decades of isolation under former autocratic President Omar al-Bashir.
