Sudan has agreed to allow flights heading to Israel to cross its airspace, a military spokesman said on Wednesday, two days after Sudan's military head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan held a surprise meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The meeting in Uganda between Burhan and Netanyahu stirred controversy in Sudan after Israeli officials said it would lead to normalizing relations between the two former foes.
Tensions have risen between the military and civilian groups sharing power after last year's overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir. The cabinet has held two emergency meetings over the Uganda trip, about which it says it was not informed.
Sudan's military responded with a rare political statement on Wednesday, describing Burhan's trip to meet Netanyahu as being in "the highest interests of national security and of Sudan."
According to Reuters, Sudanese military spokesman Amer Mohamed al-Hassan said there had been an agreement "in principle" for use of Sudan's airspace by commercial aircraft traveling from South America to Israel, though he said technical aspects of the overflights were still being studied and Sudan had not agreed to overflights by Israeli carrier El Al.
