Abrar Hussain of DOT
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will become the first ever premier from his nation to visit by Chad in the coming days as the two countries move to renew diplomatic ties, his office stated yesterday.
Netanyahu’s trip to the Muslim-majority central African nation is expected to take place Sunday, after Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno visited Israel in November. Although the prime minister’s office had not yet provided further details on the trip, it was expected to be only a one-day visit.
A political source claimed that the visit might include an official announcement of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the countries.
Israeli media reported that this would be the first ever visit by an Israeli prime minister to the African nation.
Netanyahu said during Deby’s November visit that he intended to announce the resumption of diplomatic ties during an upcoming trip to Chad.
Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state. But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and Chad, a country of some 15 million people, were severed in 1972.
Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016.
-Source: Israel Nation News