Maiga's visit would be yet another diplomatic breakthrough for Israel with a Muslim-majority country.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFChad's President Idriss Deby Itno , Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Senegalese President Macky Sall leave after a lunch at the Elysee Palace in Paris as part of the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, France, November 11, 2018(photo credit: REUTERS/PHILIPPE WOJAZER)
Prime Minister of Mali, Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga, is in discussions with senior Israeli officials regarding an official visit to the country, Israel's Channel 13 News reported.The visit would take place in the coming weeks, before the Israeli elections. Mali had diplomatic relations with Israel in the past, but severed ties following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.In 2017 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, on the sidelines at a conference in Liberia, after which the Prime Minister's Office announced that Israel and Mali agreed to start rebuilding relations.On Sunday, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group carried out a terror attack against a force of United Nations soldiers stationed in Mali; ten soldiers from Chad, who were part of the force, were killed in the attack.The group responsible said the attack was revenge for Chad's announcement that it was resuming ties with Israel, which like Mali had been severed since the Yom Kippur War.
