US push for Arab-Israel ties divides Sudanese leaders

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives in Khartoum, as Washington pushes for greater diplomatic engagements with Sudan. (AFP)
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Updated 05 October 2020
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US push for Arab-Israel ties divides Sudanese leaders

  • Less than $1 billion in cash was being offered, mostly to be paid by the Emirates, said a Sudanese official who took part in the meetings

CAIRO: Sudan’s fragile interim government is sharply divided over normalizing relations with Israel, as it finds itself under intense pressure from the Trump administration to become the third Arab country to do so in short order — after the UAE and Bahrain.
Washington’s push for Sudan-Israel ties is part of a campaign to score foreign policy achievements ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Sudan seemed like a natural target for the pressure campaign because of US leverage — Khartoum’s desperate efforts to be removed from a US list of states sponsoring terrorism. Sudan can only get the international loans and aid that are essential for reviving its battered economy once that stain is removed.
While Sudan’s transitional government has been negotiating the terms of removing the country from the list for more than a year, US officials introduced the linkage to normalization with Israel more recently.
Top Sudanese military leaders, who govern jointly with civilian technocrats in a Sovereign Council, have become increasingly vocal in their support for normalization with Israel as part of a quick deal with Washington ahead of the US election.
“Now, whether we like it or not, the removal (of Sudan from the terror list) is tied to (normalization) with Israel,” the deputy head of the council, Gen. Mohammed Dagalo, told a local television station on Friday.
“We need Israel ... Israel is a developed country and the whole world is working with it,” he said. “We will have benefits from such relations ... We hope all look at Sudan’s interests.”
Such comments would have been unthinkable until recently in a country where public hostility toward Israel remains strong.
The top civilian official in the coalition, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, has argued that the transitional government does not have the mandate to decide on foreign policy issues of this magnitude.
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Sudan last month, Hamdok urged him to move forward with removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and not link it to recognizing Israel.
“It needs a deep discussion within our society,” Hamdok told reporters earlier this week.
Several Sudanese officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said civilian leaders prefer to wait with any deal until after the US election.
The officials said military leaders seek a quick US-Sudan deal, including normalization with Israel, in exchange for an aid package. The officials said the military fears incentives being offered now could be withdrawn after the US election.
One sticking point is the size of future aid to Sudan. A meeting in Abu Dhabi last month — attended by Sudanese, US and Emirati officials — ended without agreement.
Less than $1 billion in cash was being offered, mostly to be paid by the Emirates, said a Sudanese official who took part in the meetings. The Sudanese team, had asked for $3 billion to help rescue Sudan’s economy.
Dagalo, the military official, tweeted Friday, after meeting with the US envoy to Sudan, Donald Booth, in South Sudan that he received a promise to remove Sudan from the terror list “as soon as possible.”
An Israeli official said the talks on normalization remain purely between the US and Sudan.
“We’re still not there,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a confidential diplomatic matter. He said the Israeli government hopes a deal can be wrapped up before the US election on Nov. 3.
For Israel, a cordial relationship with Sudan would be a symbolic victory.
Sudan, a Muslim-majority African country, has long said it supports the Palestinian people in their calls for an independent state. Khartoum hosted the historic Arab League summit after the 1967 Mideast War in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — lands the Palestinians seek for that state. The conference approved a resolution that became known as the “three no’s” — no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations.
The designation of Sudan as a “state sponsor of terrorism” dates to the 1990s, when the nation briefly hosted Osama bin Laden and other wanted militants. Sudan was also believed to have served as a pipeline for Iran to supply weapons to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Osman Mirghani, a Sudanese analyst and editor of the daily newspaper Al-Tayar, said Sudanese leaders don’t have unlimited time to decide.
“The US offer of incentives ... will not last too long. It is related to the US presidential election on one side, and the number of Arab states that normalize,” he said.
With Sudan’s long-time leader Omar Bashir deposed and facing war crimes and other charges, Sudan’s transitional authorities believe that the reasons behind the terrorism listing have evaporated.
But many in the US maintain Sudan should atone for its previous government’s actions.
Sudan has already agreed with the US State Department, in theory, to a compensation deal for victims of the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which were orchestrated by bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network while he was living in Sudan.
However, questions about the fairness of the proposed compensation deal to non-American victims, including those who were working for the embassies and have subsequently become US citizens, have stalled its consideration in Congress which must approve the agreement.
Meanwhile, some families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have also started procedures to claim compensation from Sudan, though the country’s links to that terror plot are less clear. Their complaint has complicated the embassy bombing compensation deal and could further deter the US Congress from removing Sudan from the list.
In the meantime, Sudan’s government realizes it has only so many cards to play.
“We should get ourselves off that list, which the US is using as leverage to get some benefits out of the relationship that it has with Sudan, which is completely legitimate,” Sudan’s acting Foreign Minister Omar Qamar Al-Din told reporters in Geneva last month.


US sending Israel 20,000 assault rifles that Biden had delayed, say sources

Updated 04 April 2025
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US sending Israel 20,000 assault rifles that Biden had delayed, say sources

  • The rifle sale is a small transaction next to the billions of dollars worth of weapons that Washington supplies to Israel
  • The March 6 congressional notification said the US government had taken into account “political, military, economic, human rights, and arms control considerations“

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration moved forward with the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to a document seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter, pushing ahead with a sale that the administration of former president Joe Biden had delayed over concerns they could be used by extremist Israeli settlers.
The State Department sent a notification to Congress on March 6 for the $24 million sale, saying the end user would be the Israeli National Police, according to the document.
The rifle sale is a small transaction next to the billions of dollars worth of weapons that Washington supplies to Israel. But it drew attention when the Biden administration delayed the sale over concerns that the weapons could end up in the hands of Israeli settlers, some of whom have carried out attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on individuals and entities accused of committing violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has seen a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians.
On his first day in office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order rescinding US sanctions on Israeli settlers in a reversal of US policy. Since then, his administration has approved the sale of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel.
The March 6 congressional notification said the US government had taken into account “political, military, economic, human rights, and arms control considerations.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment when asked if the administration sought assurances from Israel on the use of the weapons.

CLOSE TIES
Since a 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state, and has built settlements that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
Settler violence had been on the rise prior to the eruption of the Gaza war, and has worsened since the conflict began over a year ago.
Trump has forged close ties to Netanyahu, pledging to back Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His administration has in some cases pushed ahead with Israel arms sales despite requests from Democratic lawmakers that the sales be paused until they received more information.
The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a bid to block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel over human rights concerns, voting 82-15 and 83-15 to reject two resolutions of disapproval over sales of massive bombs and other offensive military equipment.
The resolutions were offered by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
The rifle sale had been put on hold after Democratic lawmakers objected and sought information on how Israel was going to use them. The congressional committees eventually cleared the sale but the Biden administration kept the hold in place.
The latest episode in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, oversees the Israeli police force. The Times of Israel newspaper in November 2023 reported that his ministry has put “a heavy emphasis on arming civilian security squads” in the aftermath of October 7 attacks.


Medecins Sans Frontieres ‘appalled’ by second staff member killed in Gaza within weeks

Updated 04 April 2025
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Medecins Sans Frontieres ‘appalled’ by second staff member killed in Gaza within weeks

  • Hussam Al Loulou died in the strike on Apr. 1 in central Gaza

GENEVA: Global medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Friday it was appalled and saddened by the killing of one of its staff by an air strike in Gaza, the second within two weeks.


Hussam Al Loulou died in the strike on Apr. 1 in central Gaza, alongside his wife and 28-year-old daughter, the organization said.


Uganda president holds talks with South Sudanese leaders to try to avoid civil war

Updated 15 min 50 sec ago
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Uganda president holds talks with South Sudanese leaders to try to avoid civil war

  • Goc said that the country’s leadership had assured Museveni of its commitment to implement the peace agreement
  • Uganda last month deployed troops to South Sudan to support the government

NAIROBI: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni was expected to meet South Sudanese officials on the second day of his trip to the capital, Juba, as the UN has expressed concern of a renewed civil war after the main opposition leader was put under house arrest.
Museveni, who is among the guarantors of a 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, held closed-door discussions with President Salva Kiir on Thursday.
South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdallah Goc said that the country’s leadership had assured Museveni of its commitment to implement the peace agreement.
South Sudan’s political landscape remains fragile and recent violence between government troops and armed groups allied to the opposition have escalated tension.
Uganda last month deployed troops to South Sudan to support the government, but it was criticized by South Sudan’s main opposition party SPLM-IO, whose leader Riek Machar is under house arrest on charges of incitement.
In early March, the armed group loyal to Machar attacked a UN helicopter that was on a mission to evacuate government troops from the restive northern Upper Nile State.
Western countries including Germany and Norway have temporarily closed their embassies in Juba while the USand the UK have reduced embassy staff.


Turkiye wants no confrontation with Israel in Syria, foreign minister says

Updated 04 April 2025
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Turkiye wants no confrontation with Israel in Syria, foreign minister says

  • Fidan said Israel’s actions in Syria were paving the way for future regional instability
  • If the new administration in Damascus wants to have “certain understandings” with Israel, then that is their own business, he added

BRUSSELS: Turkiye wants no confrontation with Israel in Syria after repeated Israeli attacks on military sites there undermined the new government’s ability to deter threats, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Friday.
In an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Fidan said Israel’s actions in Syria — where the administration of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is a close Turkish ally — were paving the way for future regional instability.
If the new administration in Damascus wants to have “certain understandings” with Israel, which like Turkiye is a neighbor of Syria, then that is their own business, he added.
NATO member Turkiye has fiercely criticized Israel over its attacks on Gaza since 2023, saying they amount to a genocide against the Palestinians, and has applied to join a case at the World Court against Israel while also halting all trade.
Israel denies the genocide accusations.
The animosity between the regional powers has spilled over into Syria, with Israeli forces striking Syria for weeks since a new administration took control in Damascus. Turkiye has called the Israeli strikes an encroachment on Syrian territories, while Israel has said it would not allow any hostile forces in Syria.
Asked about US President Donald Trump’s threats of military strikes against Iran, Fidan said diplomacy was needed to resolve the dispute and that Ankara did not want to see any attack taking place against its neighbor Iran.


Hungary’s ICC withdrawal no excuse not to arrest Netanyahu: Amnesty International

Updated 04 April 2025
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Hungary’s ICC withdrawal no excuse not to arrest Netanyahu: Amnesty International

  • Hungarian PM said his country would leave International Criminal Court after receiving Israeli counterpart this week
  • ‘By welcoming Netanyahu, Hungary is effectively giving a seal of approval to Israel’s genocide’

LONDON: Amnesty International has warned Hungary that withdrawing from the International Criminal Court would not excuse it from failing to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced his intention for his country to leave the ICC on Thursday, saying he believed it had been “diminished into a political forum.”

He made the statement after welcoming Netanyahu to Budapest, where the Israeli premier is on an official four-day visit. 

Netanyahu is the subject of an international arrest warrant, issued by the ICC, for alleged crimes committed during the war in Gaza.

Amnesty called Orban’s statement “a betrayal of all victims of war crimes,” which “undermines the protections afforded the Hungarian people, as it removes, in a year, their opportunity to seek justice at the ICC for crimes committed against them.”   

In a statement, Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said: “Prime Minister Orban is harbouring a wanted ICC fugitive. Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by the ICC of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians.

“By welcoming Netanyahu, Hungary is effectively giving a seal of approval to Israel’s genocide, namely the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in whole or in part in Gaza.

“Leaders and officials from ICC member states must not participate in undermining the ICC through meeting with Netanyahu or any other ICC fugitives who are wanted by the Court.

“Netanyahu’s shameful trip to Hungary must not become an impunity tour of other ICC member states.”

Orban said he would ignore the ICC arrest warrant after it was issued last year, inviting Netanyahu personally to visit Hungary.

Withdrawal from the ICC is possible under Article 127 of the Rome Statute but takes a year to complete. During that time, Hungary’s legal obligations to the ICC remain in place. 

“Hungary’s purported withdrawal from the ICC is a brazen and futile attempt to evade international justice and to stymy the ICC’s work,” Callamard said.

“This cynical announcement does not change the fact that Hungary still has a fundamental obligation to arrest and surrender Benjamin Netanyahu to the ICC.

“Any withdrawal would take effect in one year and must not distract from Hungary’s international legal obligations.

“The EU institutions and member states must be unequivocal about what this visit is: a direct attack by Hungary to undermine the ICC and its work, weaken the European Union at a time when it needs to stand strong and united, and an insult to all victims who are looking for justice.”

Callamard added: “The EU and all ICC member states must urgently call on Hungary to arrest and surrender Netanyahu and firmly commit to defending the Court from insidious threats to international justice which a visit of this kind represents.

“This moral bankruptcy must be stopped before it spirals into further damage for the international rules-based order.”

Amnesty noted that during the conflict so far at least 50,140 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 114,000 injured, and 1.9 million forcibly displaced by Israeli military activity.