Netanyahu says Israeli airliners have started overflying Sudan

Israeli commercial planes have started overflying Sudan, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, casting the new air corridor as the result of a breakthrough meeting with the African Muslim country's de-facto leader this month. Khartoum said Feb 5 it had given Israeli planes initial approval to fly over its territory, 2 days after Sudan's military head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, met Netanyahu in Uganda. "Now we're discussing rapid normalisation. The first Israeli airplane passed yesterday over the skies of Sudan," Netanyahu said, adding that the route cut some 3 hours off flights from Israel to South America. Sudan, mindful of pro-Palestinian sensitivities, has stopped short of saying it is normalizing ties with Israel. Israel previously considered Sudan a security threat. <br/>