Sudan agreed two years ago to normalise relations with Israel but a deal has never been implemented. It would become the latest Arab League country to establish such ties.

Israel and Sudan have finalised the text of a “historic peace agreement” that will be signed in Washington in a few months’ time, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced Thursday following talks in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

Cohen said upon his arrival to Israel from a one-day visit to see Sudanese President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that the text agreement was finalised during his visit and that the trip had been made with the United States’ consent.

The minister said the signing ceremony is expected to take place later in the year after the planned transfer of power in Sudan to a civilian government following a military coup in October 2021.

Emphasising the symbolism of a peace deal between Sudan and Israel as he announced the breakthrough, Cohen said: “Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, is remembered in Israel as the city where the Arab countries decided on the historic ‘Three Nos’: no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no recognition of Israel.

“We are building a new reality with the Sudanese, in which the ‘Three Nos’ will become the ‘Three Yesses’: yes to negotiations between Israel and Sudan, yes to recognition of Israel, and yes to peace between the states and between the peoples.”

An accord with Sudan holds particular symbolic importance as Khartoum was the venue for an Arab League meeting in 1967 where members vowed not to recognise Israel, after the Arab-Israeli war three months earlier.

Sudan agreed two years ago to normalise relations with Israel but the final steps of the process with Khartoum were stalled after the 2021 military coup.

The UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have officially normalised relations with Israel since 2020 as part of the original US-brokered Abraham Accords, of which Sudan was part. Historically, members of the Arab League had refused to recognise Israel, a factor in perpetuating the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Cohen said the visit to Sudan laid “the foundations for a historic peace agreement with a strategic Arab and Muslim country. The peace agreement between Israel and Sudan will promote regional stability and contribute to the national security of the State of Israel.”

He added that the signing would “serve as an opportunity for the establishment of relations with other countries in Africa as well as the strengthening of existing ties with African countries,” noting that “The relationship of African countries with Israel is a common interest both for us and for the countries of the continent.”