Sudan to assist Israel in bringing Ethiopian Jews

By JOSEPH NASR, The Jerusalem Post

JERUSALEM, Jan 23, 2004 — Sudanese officials agreed to assist Israel in bringing 18 thousand Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa via Khartoum.

An Israeli delegation consisting of officials from the Foreign Ministry and the defense establishment returned from a three-day visit to Sudan where they met with Sudanese officials in Khartoum to discuss the moving of 18 thousand Ethiopian Jews to Israel via Sudani airports, reported the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah on Friday.

“This sudden Israeli-Sudanese rapprochement was a result of a condition made by the Americans in return for their involvement in solving the Sudanese dispute between north and south, under the respective leadership of President Omar al-Bashir and John Kornuk, which was agreed upon two weeks ago,” European officials in Geneva told al-Seyassah.

Following the confirmation of contacts between Israel and Libya, “the wall of enmity between Israel and the Arabic North-African countries fell completely, especially because the Egyptians destroyed a considerable part of this wall in their signing a peace agreement with Israel nearly thirty decades ago,” the European officials told al-Seyassah.

The Israeli and Sudanese officials agreed on “sending an Israeli delegation to the Sudanese capital Khartoum to supervise the arrival of planes carrying Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa and thereafter securing their transportation to Israel. The Sudanese authorities expressed their readiness to allow some of its planes to help in the operation, which might last some 10 days, reported al-Seyassah.