Hawzah News Agency (Khartoum - Sudan) - Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman was fired on Wednesday, a day after he sparked a diplomatic flurry by publicly disclosing normalization talks with the Zionist entity.

Haidar Badawi Sadiq told  on Tuesday that Khartoum was interested in establishing ties with Tel Aviv and predicted that a treaty between the two sides could be signed by the end of the year or in early 2021.

The comments came hours after he posted a public blog in which he urged the country’s military-civilian leadership to speak openly about ongoing talks.

His comments, which came amid feverish speculation that other countries may soon join the United Arab Emirates in agreeing to ties with the Zionist entity, were swiftly walked back by the country’s acting foreign minister Omar Qamar al-Din Ismail, who said he was “surprised” by the announcement.

“The matter of relations with Israel has not been discussed in the Foreign Ministry at all. No one tasked Haidar Badawi Sadiq with making statements on this matter,” Ismail said.

Sadiq later said that he had confirmed talks with ‘Israel’ because no senior government officials had bothered to deny a prediction by Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen that ties with Sudan may be agreed to in the coming months.

Cohen insisted on Wednesday that peace talks between the two sides were ongoing. He claimed that they included a provision for the return of Sudanese asylum seekers currently in the country.

This is not the first time Sudanese contacts with the Zionist entity have become mired in controversy, highlighting divisions between Khartoum’s military and civilian leaders.

In February, Sudanese transitional leader Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda, a meeting quickly disavowed by the country’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.