Sudan’s leader: I felt comfortable with Netanyahu, we ate together

Sudan’s leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Saturday gave an interview to a local newspaper in which he discussed his meeting this past week with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Burhan said in the interview, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News, that he sat and ate with Netanyahu and that they even served food to one another.

Commenting on the meeting itself, he said, “I told Netanyahu about the interests of Sudan. The Palestinians also have interests of their own.”

Burhan also recalled, “A few days before I met with Netanyahu, I prayed to God. I asked him if this was good for Sudan. If it is – I’ll go. If not, tell me and I won’t go. God gave me the feeling that I needed to go and meet with him.”.

Sudan’s leader was asked in the interview whether he was afraid of Netanyahu when he came to shake hands and replied, “I felt comfortable with Netanyahu, we ate together. I gave him bread and he gave me meat. We ate from the same plate. Netanyahu laughed when I gave him the bread.”

Burhan said this week that the meeting with Netanyahu, which surprised even Sudan’s cabinet, was driven by his responsibility to protect the country’s national security.

Sudanese top brass have backed Burhan’s initiative in holding the meeting, saying it will help boost national security.

While Netanyahu’s office said after the meeting that the two leaders had agreed to cooperate towards normalizing ties, Sudan’s cabinet later said that Burhan had made no promise to Netanyahu of “normalizing ties” between the two countries.