Sudan's PM breaks silence and welcomes normalisation with Israel, despite massive uproar

Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok welcomed normalising relations with Israel just days after its UAE-backed military chief inconspicuously met with Netanyahu in Uganda.

"We welcome the press circular of the President of the Transitional Sovereign Council on his meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister," Hamdok said in a statement which he released on Facebook.

"There is no doubt that the road to real change in Sudan is full of challenges and obstacles, yet we must understand that commitment to corporate roles and responsibilities is essential to building a true democratic state," he added.

His statement comes hours after Sudan's military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan released a statement justifying his meeting with  Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I took this step from the standpoint of my responsibility... to protect the national security of Sudan and achieve the supreme interests of the Sudanese people," Burhan said in a brief statement released after he met the council and top ministers.

Read more: Bibi, Burhan, best friends? How Sudan generals' rapprochement with Israel exposes weakness of democratic transition

On Monday, Netanyahu's office said he had met Burhan in the Ugandan capital Entebbe, in a previously unannounced move.

Israel remains technically at war with Sudan, which supported hardline Islamists including Al-Qaeda during the decades-long reign of autocrat Omar Al-Bashir, ousted amid mass protests last year.

The Palestinian leadership has denounced the meeting as "a stab in the back", just days after the Israeli leader and US President Donald Trump unveiled a controversial peace plan, widely seen as skewed towards Israel.

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