[ad_1]
Of: TT
Published:
Photo: Alex Brandon
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, presents the peace agreement between Sudan and Israel at the White House. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP / TT
On Friday, Sudan joined the growing group of Arab countries that are normalizing ties with Israel, which means another feather in the line for US President Donald Trump.
Formally, the two countries have been at war for decades. Sudan fought on the side of neighboring Egypt against Israel in 1967 and for many years supported hardline Islamist groups. But now the hatchet was buried.
“Sudan and Israel have agreed to normalize relations,” he said in a statement signed by the United States in addition to the parties.
It was also United States President Donald Trump who first broke the news, immediately after he removed Sudan from the list of countries the United States considers sponsoring terrorism on Friday. A decision that is open to US aid and international investment and has been greatly requested by the transitional government in Khartoum.
Feather in Trump’s hat
The announcement of the peace agreement is a diplomatic feather in the hat of Trump, who with little more than a week to the US presidential election is behind challenger Joe Biden in opinion polls.
In mid-September, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in front of television cameras in Washington, signed similar agreements with Israel, and Trump predicts more Arab countries will join.
– We have at least five more who want to join and very soon we will have even more than that, says the president and adds:
– We hope that Saudi Arabia is one of those countries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises the deal.
– This really changes the region, he says.
Palestinian convictions
The message is also welcomed by Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.
“I appreciate all efforts to achieve regional stability and peace,” President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi wrote on Twitter.
From Palestine, which becomes increasingly isolated as the united front of the Arab countries against Israel now breaks down, instead competitors PLO and Hamas join in distancing themselves.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “condemns” the agreement, while Hamas calls Sudan’s decision a “political sin.”
Damages for terrorist acts
Trump had unveiled his plan to abolish Sudan’s blacklist earlier this week. Soon after, Israel sent a delegation to Khartoum to discuss normalization of relations.
According to Washington, Sudan has agreed to pay $ 335 million, equivalent to nearly three billion crowns, to avoid the blacklist.
The money will go to survivors of the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The terrorist attack was carried out by al-Qaeda, which had a haven in Sudan under then-dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Published:
