Sudan’s Foreign Ministry says the country won’t install Iranian anti-aircraft missiles in the country after earlier exploring the idea following suspected Israeli airstrikes there in 2012.

A Foreign Ministry statement Friday said the country wouldn’t install the defensive missiles “for fear it could be misinterpreted by some Gulf states.”

In October 2012, Sudan claimed that Israeli airstrikes caused an explosion and fire at a military factory south of the capital, Khartoum, killing two people. It said four aircraft hit the Yarmouk complex, setting off a huge blast that rocked the capital before dawn.

Israel never claimed the attack, but Israeli officials at the time said Sudan played a key role in an Iranian-backed network of arms shipments to hostile Arab militant groups across the Middle East.

(AP)