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Israeli aircraft lands at Sudan’s Khartoum airport amid normalization attempts: Report

In this file photo, planes are parked on a runway at Khartoum International Airport, Sudan.

An Israeli private aircraft has reportedly landed at Khartoum International Airport as the Tel Aviv regime and Sudan's sovereign council are engaged in cooperation towards normalization of bilateral ties.

The London-based and Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, citing Israeli journalist Shimon Aran, reported on Tuesday that a Hawker 800 mid-size and twinjet plane, with the registration number N84UP, had arrived at the principal airport of the Northeast African country.

The report, however, did not provide any information about the purpose of the flight and those onboard.

Sudanese government officials also refused to answer any of the al-Quds al-Arabi questions about the corporate to which the aircraft belongs.

Sudanese army spokesman Brigadier General Amer Mohamed al-Hassan later asserted that a plane of Turkish origin had landed at a military base attached to Khartoum airport and was carrying medical supplies. 

“I have no knowledge of the owner of the plane or its registration certificate, because these are technical details that we are not familiar with,” he said.

Earlier this week, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that the 70-year-old Chairman of the Likud party and head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had a telephone conversation on the first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday, which makes the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The two official apparently discussed ways to strengthen mutual ties during the phone call.

Back on February 16, Netanyahu said that an Israeli civilian aircraft had flown through Sudanese airspace for the first time, in what was seen as another example of warming ties with the Israeli regime.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz, quoting an unnamed Israeli official, said then that the plane was “a private Israeli executive jet.”

Khartoum said on February 5 it had given Israeli planes initial approval to fly over Sudanese territory, two days after Burhan met Netanyahu in the city of Entebbe in central Uganda.

A high-ranking official with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has denounced Sudan’s decision to forge normal relations with Israel, describing such attempts as nothing but a “mirage.”

“My message to the Sudanese government is: You are free in your internal and external policies, and we do not dictate anything to anyone. However, normalization with Israel is simply a … mirage as regards [national] interests,” Sudan’s Popular Congress Party, citing Khaled Meshaal, wrote on its official Facebook page late on Friday, the al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Saturday.


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