The leaders of Jordan and Sudan congratulated Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on his Nov. 1 election victory.
Jordanian King Abdullah II and Netanyahu spoke by phone on Monday, although no details of the conversation were released. The two men had an up-and-down relationship during Netanyahu’s previous 12-year tenure as premier, with Amman regularly publicly slamming alleged Israeli violations of the religious status quo in Jerusalem, foremost as they relate to the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located.
The countries’ 1994 peace treaty recognized the kings of Jordan as the custodian of the Muslim holy places atop the compound, which is Judaism’s holiest site.
Abdullah has also regularly criticized Israeli policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians.
Sudanese military ruler Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan sent a letter to Netanyahu expressing a desire to “continue the cooperation between us to advance ties in all fields for the benefit of citizens in both countries,” according to the prospective Israeli prime minister’s office.
Sudan previously moved to normalize ties with Israel, although the thaw in relations was largely frozen after last year’s military coup in Khartoum upended a power-sharing agreement meant to pave the way to civilian rule.
Netanyahu met with Burhan in February 2020 in Uganda.
Netanyahu received the mandate to form Israel’s next government from President Isaac Herzog on Sunday.
In his subsequent speech, he promised to work to bring about more peace agreements between Israel and Arab countries, which would be based on “peace through strength, peace in exchange for peace.”
