Israel is racing against time to formalize relations with Sudan, to establish a foothold in Africa and the Red Sea, and continue its efforts with the US President Donald Trump's administration to support Khartoum and remove it from the list of terrorism.
The Israeli establishment attaches great importance to the normalization of relations with Sudan, and its exit from the scenes under the rule of the Military Council.
This security establishment is betting on embracing Sudan, which was - from the Israeli point of view - an important stop for Al Qaeda and Iranian weapons depots, and a path for the transfer of weapons to the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, and to Libya, which is witnessing at this stage the strengthening of Turkish influence and investments increasingly.
Tel Aviv considers the importance of strengthening influence in the African continent and in the borders of the countries of the Maghreb, noting that the first penetration of Israel into Africa into Islamic countries was in Chad, which borders Sudan and Libya.
Alliance and hostility
The political commentator, Amnon Lord, believes that, unlike the normalization of relations with the UAE and Bahrain, the relations and the alliance between Israel and Sudan have fundamental meanings and historical significance in the context of the historical hostility of the Arab world towards Israel.
He explained that the matter was not limited to Sudan’s close association with the symbolic Khartoum Conference, which declared on September 1, 1967 that there is no peace with Israel, recognition of it, or negotiations. “Sudan has transformed from the logistical backbone of terrorism to a partner in alliance with Israel.”
Indeed, until recently, the Israeli journalist says, "Sudan was the logistical backbone of terrorist organizations in the Middle East, Hezbollah, the Algerian organizations, Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and even al-Qaeda had training camps in Sudan, and there were warehouses for supplying weapons."
Regarding the significance and meanings of normalizing relations with Sudan for Israel, the political commentator says, "For us, this is basically true for us in order to besiege Hamas, but Sudan was an ally of Iran, which sent barges and cargo ships to Port Sudan on the shores of the Red Sea."
Variables and interventions
The Israeli commentator who works for the newspaper "Israel Hayom" claimed that Sudan formed a strategic and essential route for the supply of weapons from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and all this happened despite the "wonders of peace" with Egypt, and the handover of Israel to Cairo, the Sinai Peninsula, and what it contains Natural and oil resources and the evacuation of settlements.
He pointed out that Sudan dismantled its alliance with Iran in the wake of the war in Yemen, and he asserted that relations with Khartoum, which have not yet ripened to a complete and comprehensive peace, are a reflection of the strategic and regional level in Africa and the Middle East, which is undergoing rapid changes.
Iran and Turkey
But the situation is dire, the Israeli commentator says, "Iran is not the whole story - referring to Turkey -. The Red Sea is turning into a flaming sea. And the strategic struggle is raging for control and a foothold in the Red Sea, and normalization and the alliance that is the axis of Israel will ensure this."
He stressed that controlling the Sudanese side of the sea improves the regional and strategic position and position of Israel and the United States, opposite China and Turkey, which Mossad chief Yossi Cohen views as a long-term security threat more than Iran, which is considered to be a fragile regional power that can be contained.
Secret and overt
According to Professor Elie Fouda, a researcher at the Mitvim Institute specializing in foreign policies for the Middle East and Israel, in the past year Tel Aviv has improved its relations with Sudan and became public, as secret relations with the regime began in Khartoum since the era of President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019.
The lecturer in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University believes that the new regime in Khartoum, and in its attempt to exclude Sudan from the list of countries that support terrorism, considers Israel and the Jewish lobby in the United States an important channel to influence the American administration.
He stressed that the meeting of interests of Tel Aviv and Khartoum accelerated the exit of their relations from secrecy to the public, through the meeting that brought together Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Sudanese Military Council, Abdel Fattah Burhan, in Uganda in 2019, and contacts between the two parties and the United States are taking place behind the scenes, and not so long ago That Israel and Sudan establish formal diplomatic relations.
And unlike the Gulf states, the Israeli lecturer says, "Relations with Sudan are not of economic importance, but their location, whether along the Nile River or along the Red Sea, makes them a strategic asset on the map of the Middle East as well as Africa."