Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon travel to Chad in order to announce the resumption of diplomatic relations between Israel and the north African Muslim country, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, shortly after Netanyahu met with Chadian President Idriss Deby, who has been in Israel since Sunday.
Netanyahu and Deby met in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning for their third and final meeting, where the two discussed the common threats facing both countries and the fight against terror, as well as increased cooperation between the countries in the fields of agriculture, border security, solar energy, water and medicine.
Though no date was set for the trip yet, Deby, in an interview to Israel’s i24 News on Monday, said that it will be taking place “in the coming weeks.”
Asked if Chad would assist Israel in forging ties with Africa’s Muslim countries, Deby said: “The world is changing before our eyes. Crises and wars we knew are changing as well. There’s a time for war and a time for peace.”
“Our message is global to all leaders: Chad doesn’t presume to speak for black Africa. Chad comes to renew bilateral diplomatic relations. But if Chad can be a facilitator, Chad will not hesitate,” he added.
On Sunday, during a joint press conference between the two leaders, Deby told reporters that he “wants to renew ties between the two countries, and that doing so would not eliminate the Palestinian problem.”
During the press conference Netanyahu said that he had spoken with Deby “about the changes that are taking place in the Arab world with regard to Israel, and this is reflected in the meeting with Sultan Qaboos [in Oman], and there will be more visits to Arab countries soon.”
The Chadian president said that dialogue and communication “are the basis for everything.”
During the press conference, Deby highlighted that despite “diplomatic relations being severed in the 1970s, it did not prevent good relations between us, which continued all the time.”
The president of Chad also met with his Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.