CAIRO: Sudan's military announced Wednesday it backed a surprise meeting held between the country's leader and Israel's premier in Uganda this week, saying the opening would help boost national security.

General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan's ruling sovereign council, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Entebbe on Monday in a meeting that was not pre-announced.

Sudan has long been part of a decades-old official Arab boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians and occupation of Arab lands.

On Tuesday, Burhan briefed the sovereign council and key ministers about his meeting, saying he met Netanyahu "to protect the national security of Sudan".

The military's support for Burhan on the matter came after top officers met at army headquarters in Khartoum.

"There was a meeting at the army headquarters today, and those present... were briefed about the visit ... and its impact on Sudan's national security," military spokesman Brigadier Amir Mohamed Al-Hassan told AFP.

"The army is in favour of this (Burhan-Netanyahu) meeting as it is in the interest of Sudan's national security."

On Wednesday, Burhan met Sudanese editors to explain why he met Israel's premier.

Burhan told the editors "the main thing that pushed him to take the decision to meet ... (Netanyahu) was to secure some key benefits for Sudan," said Hassan, without elaborating.

"He said that brave decisions were needed in order to change the current situation in Sudan, to ease the economic pressures on Sudanese people, and also to change the internal and foreign policies of Sudan."

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abddalla Hamdok appeared rattled by the meeting this week between the head of his country’s transitional council and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting that all decisions related to Sudan’s foreign affairs “should be made” exclusively by his Cabinet.
Hamdok’s government said it wasn’t consulted and only learned of the meeting through the media. Burhan is Sudan’s de facto leader and heads its military-civilian transitional council established following autocrat Omar Al-Bashir’s ouster in a popular uprising that ended his 30-year rule last April.
“The road to meaningful change in Sudan is riddled with challenges and obstacles,” Hamdok tweeted. “However, we must understand that abiding to legal institutional roles and responsibilities is key to building a truly democratic state.”

The road to meaningful change in Sudan is riddled with challenges and obstacles. However, we must understand that abiding to legal institutional roles and responsibilities is key to building a truly democratic state.

— Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) February 5, 2020

“The transitional government as a whole must ensure accountability, responsibility and transparency in all decisions made,” he added.
Hamdok however welcomed Burhan’s statement later on Tuesday that Sudan still backs the Palestinian people’s aspirations to have their independent state.
Khartoum has been a longtime member of the Arab League and joined other members at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday in rejecting President Donald Trump’s plan for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that heavily favors Israel and all but extinguishing Palestinian hopes for their own state.