From Reuters:
“Sudan
becomes third Arab state to set aside hostilities with Israel this year”
Israel and
Sudan agreed on Friday to take steps to normalize relations in a deal brokered
with the help of the United States, making Khartoum the third Arab government
to set aside hostilities with Israel in the last two months. U.S. President
Donald Trump, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, sealed the agreement in a phone
call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister
Abdalla Hamdok and Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, senior
U.S. officials said. Trump's decision this week to remove Sudan from the U.S.
list of state sponsors of terrorism paved the way for the accord with Israel,
marking a foreign policy achievement for the Republican president as he seeks a
second term trailing in opinion polls behind Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Netanyahu
hailed it as a "new era" for the region, but the Palestinian
leadership, watching as more of their Arab brethren appear to give their quest
for statehood a lower priority, called it a "new stab in the back." "The
leaders agreed to the normalization of relations between Sudan and Israel and
to end the state of belligerence between their nations," according to a
joint statement issued by the three countries that also promised U.S. help for
Khartoum to secure international debt relief. Israel and Sudan plan to begin by
opening economic and trade links, with an initial focus on agriculture, the
joint statement said. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said such issues as formal establishment of diplomatic ties would be
resolved later. Trump touted the deal to reporters in the Oval Office with the
Israeli and Sudanese leaders on the line in a three-way phone call, saying at
least five other countries wanted to follow suit and normalize relations with
Israel. "Do you think 'Sleepy Joe' could have made this deal?" Trump
asked Netanyahu, using the president's pejorative nickname for Biden a day
after their final, rancorous debate of the 2020 presidential campaign.
"Somehow I don't think so." Netanyahu, reliant on bipartisan support
for Israel in Washington, responded haltingly: ""Well, Mr. President,
one thing I can tell you, is, um, uh, we appreciate the help for peace from
anyone in America." Trump's aides view his pro-Israel policies as
appealing to Christian evangelical voters, who are among his biggest
supporters.
In recent weeks
the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the first Arab states in a quarter
of a century to agree to formal links with Israel, forged largely through shared
fears of Iran. Trump insisted the Palestinians also "are wanting to do
something" but offered no proof. Palestinian leaders have condemned recent
Arab overtures to Israel as a betrayal of their nationalist cause and have
refused to engage with the Trump administration, seeing it as biased in favor
of Israel. "No one has the right to speak in the name of the Palestinian
people and in the name of the Palestinian cause," Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement.
DROPPING
SUDAN FROM TERRORISM LIST Trump announced on Monday he would take Sudan off
the terrorism list once it had deposited $335 million it had pledged to pay in
compensation. Khartoum has since placed the funds in a special escrow account
for victims of al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in
1998. The White House called Trump's intention to remove Sudan from the
terrorism list a "pivotal turning point" for Khartoum, which is
seeking to emerge from decades of isolation. The military and civilian
leaders of Sudan's transitional government have been divided over how fast and
how far to go in establishing ties with Israel. A sticking point in the
negotiations was Sudan's insistence that any announcement of Khartoum's
delisting from the terrorism designation not be explicitly linked to relations
with Israel. The Sudanese premier wants approval from a yet-to-be formed
parliament to proceed with broader, formal normalization, and that may not be a
quick process given sensitivities and civilian-military differences. It is
still unclear when the assembly will be created. "Agreement on
normalization with Israel will be decided after completion of the
constitutional institutions through the formation of the legislative council,”
Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Gamareldin said on state television shortly
after Friday's announcement. The new agreement was negotiated on the
U.S. side by a team that included Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared
Kushner, who called the normalization deals the start of a "paradigm
shift" in the Middle East. He said Sudan's decision was
symbolically significant because it was in Khartoum in 1967 that the Arab
League decided not to recognize Israel's right to exist. Sudan's
designation as a state sponsor of terrorism dates to its toppled ruler Omar
al-Bashir and has made it difficult for its transitional government to access
urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing. Many in Sudan say the
designation, imposed in 1993 because Washington believed Bashir was supporting
militant groups, has become outdated since he was removed last year. U.S.
congressional legislation is needed to shield Khartoum from future legal claims
over past attacks to ensure the flow of payments to the embassy bombing victims
and their families.
^ Hopefully
this Peace Deal is real and that the Middle East and the rest of the world
becomes even more safe from this act. Israel has a right to be a nation and has
been one for 72 years so any group or country that continues to call for its
removal is backwards, outdated and needs to move into the 21st
Century. There are still many people and countries that follow the anti-Semitic
BDS Movement against Israel and Jews. BDS sounds more like a reason you have to
take Pepto-Bismol and always be around a toilet than anything else. ^
https://news.yahoo.com/israel-sudan-agree-steps-toward-144900629.html
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