Sudan denies secret Israel meeting

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM (AA) - The Sudanese government on Wednesday denied reports about a secret meeting between Israeli and Sudanese officials in Istanbul last year.

Israeli Channel 10 claimed that officials from the Israeli Foreign Ministry had secretly met with Sudanese intelligence officials in Istanbul, Turkey in an effort to establish ties between the two countries.

“This information is false and fabricated,” Information Minister and government spokesman Bushara Gomaa told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have deep and ongoing political, ideological and religious disputes with Israel,” he said.

A Sudanese party official earlier denied Israeli media reports claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was planning to visit Sudan soon.

The reports came a few days after Netanyahu met with Chadian President Idriss Deby, who arrived in Israel for his first visit.

A senior Israeli official told Channel 10 TV that Deby’s visit was laying the groundwork for normal ties between Israel and the Muslim-majority African states of Sudan, Mali and Niger.

Sudan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.