Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is currently in Africa on his first official visit to the continent. Along with the civil war in Ethiopia, the Oct. 25 military coup in Sudan that derailed the country's democratic transition is reportedly a priority for his talks in Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield raised the issue of Sudan while visiting Israel this week. According to her office, the ambassador's meeting with Defense Minister Benny Gantz “addressed the importance of Sudan’s returning to a civilian-led transition.”

According to Israeli press reports, the two leaders did more than discuss the issue and that Thomas-Greenfield asked Israel to intervene in Sudan to restore civil governance and resume to the transition process. The unusual news follows reports about a similar message from Blinken himself some three weeks ago in talks with Israeli officials. A Nov. 3 report by Barak Ravid read that Washington had asked Jerusalem to press Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to restore the civilian government toppled a week earlier.

Contacts with Sudan on normalization started before the September 2020 signing of the Abraham Accords, which brought about normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly met with Burhan in Uganda in February 2020. After the meeting, Netanyahu announced that Sudan intended to normalize its relations with Israel.