Chad said to condition resumed ties on ‘extensive’ weapons sales

During his visit to Israel earlier this week, the president of Chad presented a laundry list of demands from Israel, which is eager to resume diplomatic ties with the majority-Muslim African nation, Channel 10 news reports.

The report quotes senior officials in the Foreign Ministry as saying that Chad’s President Idriss Deby’s demands focused on weapons acquisition and security cooperation.

The report says the list was “very extensive” and caused “serious concerns among those who were exposed to it.”

It says that Deby and his entourage were “extremely aggressive” about their demands, and hinted that they could condition the resumption of diplomatic ties — which were severed in 1972 — on them being met.

The officials are quoted as saying that Netanyahu and his national security adviser have yet to respond to the demands, which will come up in internal deliberations as well as in talks with Chad in the coming weeks, ahead of the prime minister’s planned reciprocal visit.