Last week, U.S. officials held talks with Sudan in the hopes of adding it to a growing list of countries that have normalized relations with Israel, in what the Trump administration has billed as part of its Middle East peace process.
But negotiations with Sudan have stalled, putting on hold the pre-election momentum of the administration’s earlier diplomatic successes.
According to two Sudanese officials with knowledge of the talks, they faltered partly because Sudanese negotiators feared a rushed recognition of Israel, without a large-enough economic relief package to sweeten the deal, could turn popular support against Sudan’s precarious, unelected transitional government, which took power after the overthrow of the country’s longtime autocratic ruler, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, last year.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the negotiations, said the United States, the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the talks, and Israel together offered less than $1 billion, and much of it in fuel credit and promised investments, not in hard cash, which Sudan desperately needs with its currency in free fall and inflation spiking.
Sudanese negotiators had wanted at least double that in return for normalizing ties with Israel.
The State Department declined to comment on the talks. Israeli officials also declined to comment on the negotiations.
