CAIRO: Sudan on Wednesday said it signed the “Abraham Accords” with the US, paving the way for the African country to normalize ties with Israel.
A statement from the office of Sudan’s prime minister said Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari signed the accord Wednesday with visiting US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The recent US-negotiated deals between Arab countries and Israel have been a major foreign policy achievement by President Donald Trump's administration. The deals were named the “Abraham Accords” after the biblical patriarch revered by Muslims and Jews.
The signing came just over two months after Trump announced that Sudan would start to normalize ties with Israel.
Before Sudan, the Trump administration engineered diplomatic pacts late last year between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — the first since Jordan recognized Israel in the 1990s and Egypt in the 1970s. Morocco also established diplomatic ties with Israel.
The US and Sudan on Wednesday agreed to settle the African’s country’s debt to the World Bank, widely seen as a key step toward the nation’s economic recovery after the 2019 overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar Al-Bashir.
The move came during Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's visit to Khartoum, making him the first senior American official to land there since President Donald Trump’s administration removed the African country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Mnuchin arrived at Khartoum’s international airport, where he received by acting Finance Minister Heba Mohammed Ali, and US Charge d’Affaires in Sudan Brian Shukan, the prime minister's office said in a statement.
It is the first visit by a sitting US treasury chief to Sudan, the statement said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in August became the first top American diplomat to visit Sudan since 2005, when Condoleezza Rice visited. Pompeo was also the most senior US official to visit the African country since last year’s ouster of Al-Bashir.
Mnuchin's visit came after a one-day-visit to Cairo, where he met with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, a close US ally. The stops are part of a flurry of activity during the final days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden becomes president on Jan. 20.
The US treasury secretary met with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and is scheduled to meet with other Sudanese leaders including Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council.
The visit came “at a time when our bilateral relations are taking historical leaps towards a better future. We’re planning to make tangible strides today as our relations enter a #NewEra,” Hamdok tweeted.
Mnuchin’s one-day visit focused on the country’s struggling economy and possible US economic assistance, including debt relief, the statement said. Sudan today has more than $60 billion in foreign debt. Relief from its arrears and access to foreign loans are widely seen as its gateway to economic recovery.
Sudan’s Finance Ministry said it inked a “memorandum of understanding” with the US treasury department to to facilitate the payment of Sudan’s arrears to the World Bank.
The ministry said the settlement would enable Sudan's government to have more than $1 billion annually from the World Bank, for the fist time since nearly three decades when Sudan was designated as pariah state. It did not provide further details.
The Justice Ministry, however, announced last month that the US would play a $1 billion bridge loan to the World Bank to help clear Sudan’s arrears with the institution, in addition to $1.1 billion direct and indirect aid from the US.
Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow al-Bashir in April 2019. The county is now ruled by a joint military and civilian government that seeks better ties with Washington and the West.
The government has been struggling with a huge budget deficit and widespread shortages of essential goods, including fuel, bread and medicine.
Annual inflation soared past 200% in the past months as prices of bread and other staples surged, according to official figures.
Last month, Trump’s administration finalized the removal of Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. The move was a key incentive for the government in Khartoum to normalize relations with Israel.
The two countries, Sudan and Israel, have agreed to have full diplomatic ties, making Sudan the third Arab state — after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — to move to normalize relations with Israel late last year. Morocco also established diplomatic ties with Israel.
Sudan’s economy has suffered from decades of US sanctions and mismanagement under Al-Bashir, who had ruled the country since 1989.
The designation dates back to the 1990s, when Sudan briefly hosted Al-Qaeda leader 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.
Mnuchin’s visit came amid rising tensions between military and civilian members of Sudan’s transitional government. That tensions, which resurfaced in recent weeks, have largely centered on the Sudanese military’s economic assets, over which the civilian-run finance ministry does not have control.
John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry watchdog group, urged The US treasury secretary to pressure the military and security apparatus to allow “independent oversight” to businesses they control.
“As Secretary Mnuchin engages with the leadership in Khartoum, it is critical that he weighs in with strong support for international anti-money laundering standards and fiscal transparency, which are essential for Sudan to counter the looting of its national economy,” he said.
Sudan says it signed ‘Abraham Accords’ with US
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Sudan says it signed ‘Abraham Accords’ with US
- The signing came just over two months after Trump announced that Sudan would normalize ties with Israel
- The US and Sudan agreed to settle the African’s country’s debt to the World Bank, widely seen as a key step toward the nation’s economic recovery
UN chief urges release of staff held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
- “The United Nations will continue to work through all possible channels to secure the safe and immediate release of those arbitrarily detained,” the secretary-general said
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres called Friday for the “immediate and unconditional” release of all humanitarian staff held by Yemen’s Houthis, saying the rebel group had detained seven United Nations workers.
The Iran-backed Houthis have held dozens of workers from the United Nations and other aid groups since the middle of last year, including 13 UN staff since last June.
“Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable,” Guterres said in a statement, adding that the “continued targeting of UN personnel and its partners negatively impacts our ability to assist millions of people in need in Yemen.”
“The United Nations will continue to work through all possible channels to secure the safe and immediate release of those arbitrarily detained,” the secretary-general said.
Reeling from a decade of war, Yemen is mired in a humanitarian catastrophe with more than 18 million people needing assistance and protection, according to the United Nations.
The latest detentions of UN staff come after United States President Donald Trump ordered the Houthis placed back on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Re-listing the Houthis will trigger a review of UN agencies and other NGOs working in Yemen that receive US funding, according to the executive order signed on Wednesday.
Large drop in number of aid trucks entering Gaza on Friday
- The influx of aid this week compares with just 2,892 aid trucks entering Gaza for the whole of December, according to data from the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA
UNITED NATIONS: More than 4,200 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in the six days since a ceasefire began between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas, the United Nations said, although there was a large drop in the number of loads delivered on Friday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 339 aid trucks crossed into Gaza on Friday, citing information from Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire agreement — the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
This compares with 630 on Sunday, 915 on Monday, 897 on Tuesday, 808 on Wednesday, and 653 on Thursday.
The truce deal requires at least 600 truckloads of aid to enter Gaza each day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of those trucks are supposed to go to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.
When asked why there was a large drop in the number of aid trucks on Friday, OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko said the UN and humanitarian partners “have been working as quickly as possible to dispatch and distribute this large volume of assistance” to some 2.1 million people across the devastated enclave.
The influx of aid this week compares with just 2,892 aid trucks entering Gaza for the whole of December, according to data from the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
Aid is dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it is picked up by the UN and distributed. Data from OCHA shows 2,230 aid truckloads — an average of 72 a day — were then picked up in December.
Throughout the 15-month war, the UN has described its humanitarian operation as opportunistic — facing problems with Israel’s military operation, access restrictions by Israel, and more recently looting by armed gangs.
The UN has said that there has been no apparent major law-and-order issues since the ceasefire came into effect.
“We are also scaling up the broader response, including by providing protection assistance, education activities and other essential support,” Kaneko said.
Gaza aid surge having an impact but challenges remain
- In the final months before the ceasefire, the few aid convoys that managed to reach central and northern Gaza were routinely looted
- Over the past week, UN officials have reported "minor incidents of looting"
JERUSALEM: Hundreds of truckloads of aid have entered Gaza since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began last weekend, but its distribution inside the devastated territory remains an enormous challenge.
The destruction of the infrastructure that previously processed deliveries and the collapse of the structures that used to maintain law and order make the safe delivery of aid to the territory's 2.4 million people a logistical and security nightmare.
In the final months before the ceasefire, the few aid convoys that managed to reach central and northern Gaza were routinely looted, either by desperate civilians or by criminal gangs.
Over the past week, UN officials have reported "minor incidents of looting" but they say they are hopeful that these will cease once the aid surge has worked its way through.
In Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, an AFP cameraman filmed two aid trucks passing down a dirt road lined with bombed out buildings.
At the first sight of the dust cloud kicked up by the convoy, residents began running after it.
Some jumped onto the truck's rear platforms and cut through the packaging to reach the food parcels inside.
UN humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East Muhannad Hadi said: "It's not organised crime. Some kids jump on some trucks trying to take food baskets.
"Hopefully, within a few days, this will all disappear, once the people of Gaza realise that we will have aid enough for everybody."
central Gaza, residents said the aid surge was beginning to have an effect.
"Prices are affordable now," said Hani Abu al-Qambaz, a shopkeeper in Deir el-Balah. For 10 shekels ($2.80), "I can buy a bag of food for my son and I'm happy."
The Gaza spokesperson of the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that while the humanitarian situation remained "alarming", some food items had become available again.
The needs are enormous, though, particularly in the north, and it may take longer for the aid surge to have an impact in all parts of the territory.
In the hunger-stricken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect themselves from winter rains and biting winds, aid workers say.
In northern Gaza, where Israel kept up a major operation right up to the eve of the ceasefire, tens of thousands had had no access to deliveries of food or drinking water for weeks before the ceasefire.
With Hamas's leadership largely eliminated by Israel during the war, Gaza also lacks any political authority for aid agencies to work with.
In recent days, Hamas fighters have begun to resurface on Gaza's streets. But the authority of the Islamist group which ruled the territory for nearly two decades has been severely dented, and no alternative administration is waiting in the wings.
That problem is likely to get worse over the coming week, as Israeli legislation targeting the lead UN aid agency in Gaza takes effect.
Despite repeated pleas from the international community for a rethink, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has been coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza for decades, will be effectively barred from operating from Tuesday.
UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler warned the effect would be "catastrophic" as other UN agencies lacked the staff and experience on the ground to replace it.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned last week that the Israeli legislation risked undermining the fledgling ceasefire.
Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group said the Israeli legislation amounted to "robbing Gaza's residents of their most capable aid provider, with no clear alternative".
Israel claims that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the October 2023 attack by Hamas gunmen, which started the Gaza war.
A series of probes, including one led by France's former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some "neutrality related issues" at UNRWA but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
Israel UN envoy formally calls on UNRWA to vacate Jerusalem premises
- Israel UN envoy formally calls on UNRWA to vacate Jerusalem premises
- UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warns against ‘blatant disregard of international humanitarian law’
NEW YORK: Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN Danny Danon on Friday called on the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees to halt its operations in Jerusalem, and evacuate its premises in the city “no later than Jan. 30,” the day an Israeli ban on the organization is due to take effect.
Legislation blocking UNRWA from operating within Israel was approved overwhelmingly by the Knesset in October. The ban also prevents the country’s authorities from maintaining any contact with the relief agency.
Delivery of aid to Gaza and the West Bank requires close coordination between UNRWA and Israeli authorities. If the legislation is implemented as planned, Israel will no longer issue agency staff with work or entry permits, and coordination with the Israeli military that is essential for ensuring safe passage for aid deliveries will no longer be possible.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel has relentlessly condemned and attacked the aid agency. More than 260 of its staff have been killed, while its schools — used by displaced Palestinians for shelter — have been bombed. A coordinated Israeli media campaign has attempted to discredit the agency by portraying it as a tool of Hamas.
As the date for enforcement of the Israeli ban approaches, Danon told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that UNRWA’s premises in Jerusalem must be vacated as stipulated by law.
The Israeli envoy said that the legislation came “as a direct response to the acute national security risks posed by the widespread infiltration of UNRWA’s ranks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and the agency’s persistent refusal to address the very grave and material concerns raised by Israel, and to remedy this intolerable situation.”
He added: “Months of good-faith engagement with the United Nations, and years of related grievances conveyed to UNRWA, have been met with blatant disregard, compromising its fundamental obligation to impartiality and neutrality beyond repair.”
Most UN member states consider UNRWA, the largest aid agency for Palestinians, to be the irreplaceable backbone of humanitarian operations. However, few levers have been pulled to try to ensure the agency’s existence.
Asked by Arab News about this discrepancy between public statements of support and meaningful action, and whether it means Western countries are undermining the same multilateral values on which they were founded, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said: “The same question could be asked about the importance of international humanitarian law and the blatant and constant disregard of that law.
“You can ask the same question about the disrespect for the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly. And you can ask the same question about the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, and the court’s call for its withdrawal.
“And so, it’s obviously frustrating,” Lazzarini added. “What we have witnessed is an extraordinary ‘crisis of impunity,’ to the extent that international humanitarian law is almost becoming irrelevant if no mechanism is put in place to address this impunity.”
Hamas buries 2 leaders slain in Israel strike in Gaza months ago
- Hundreds of people attended the funerals of Rauhi Mushtaha and Sami Mohammad Odeh during Friday prayers
- The bodies, draped in the green flag of Hamas, were carried on stretchers from the mosque
GAZA CITY: Two senior Hamas members, whom Israel said it had killed months ago, were buried in Gaza on Friday after their remains were discovered under rubble during the truce, AFP journalists reported.
Hundreds of people attended the funerals of Rauhi Mushtaha and Sami Mohammad Odeh during Friday prayers in the courtyard of the Omari mosque, a historic landmark in the heart of Gaza City that has been heavily damaged by Israeli bombing.
The bodies, draped in the green flag of Hamas, were carried on stretchers from the mosque to their burial site, accompanied by around 16 masked members of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group.
The Israeli army announced in early October that it had “eliminated” Mushtaha and Odeh along with another Hamas leader “about three months earlier” during an air strike in the Gaza Strip.
Mushtaha, designated an “international terrorist” by the United States in 2015, was a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, responsible for finances.
Odeh was the head of Hamas’s internal security agency.
Hamas officially acknowledged their deaths in a statement on Sunday, saying that they had fallen as “martyrs.”
