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Sudan Agrees to Conditional Normalization of Ties with Israel

Sudanese Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
Sudanese Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
    Khartoum - Ahmed Younes, Mohammed Amin Yassin
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Sudan Agrees to Conditional Normalization of Ties with Israel

Sudanese Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)
Sudanese Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (EPA)

Sudanese and US officials have arrived to an agreement that includes removing Sudan from the US list of terrorism sponsors, sources reported, adding that the agreement will be officially announced in the coming few days.

The two sides have also achieved a principal agreement on Sudan’s role in Arab states normalizing ties with Israel, promoting regional peace and preserving the rights of Palestinians.

Khartoum, however, tied its position on normalization with Israel to fulfilling its demands which include the provision of a package of financial aid and facilitating its access to loans from international financial institutions.

Khartoum and Washington have agreed to the US presenting Sudan with a $7 billion support package, delisting the North African nation from the US list of terrorism sponsors, and ensuring that Khartoum will not be persecuted in the future, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

In principal, Sudan has agreed to normalize ties with Israel if its conditions are met.

Sudanese and US officials have been engaged in high-level talks in Abu Dhabi for three days.

The US delegation, during the talks, made multiple calls to US President Donald Trump and his advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, sources added.

General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, is expected to hold meetings with the cabinet and the sovereign council to unify the stance towards negotiations with the US, especially over normalizing ties with Israel.

This follows a number of opposition parties voicing their rejection of establishing ties with Israel.

A Sudanese team led by al-Burhan flew to the UAE on Sunday to hold talks with US officials on several issues including the removal of Sudan from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Sudanese officials held “serious and frank talks” on the future of Arab-Israeli peace, which would lead to “stability in the region and preserve the right of the Palestinian people to establish their state according to the vision of a two-state solution”, a council statement said after the return of the delegation.

The two sides also discussed “the role that Sudan is expected to play in achieving this peace,” it said, without giving any details.

The council, made up of the military and civilians, has been in charge of Sudan since the toppling of autocrat Omar al-Bashir last year.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said that the only thing standing in the way of the US removing Sudan off the US list of terrorism sponsors was the passing of the Sovereign Immunities Act in Washington.

Hamdok, during a cabinet briefing, confirmed that the compensation payments for the families of the victims and survivors of the USS Cole attack and the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania were ready.

Sudan is committed to pay a package of $335 million to settle all issues linked to terrorism.

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Arab World

Egypt Urges All Parties to Show Restraint before Gaza's Rafah Crossing Reopens

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
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Egypt Urges All Parties to Show Restraint before Gaza's Rafah Crossing Reopens

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP
Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday - AFP

Egypt condemned Israel's latest strikes in Gaza on Saturday and urged all parties to respect a fragile US-brokered ceasefire ahead of the long-awaited reopening of the territory's Rafah border crossing, AFP reported.

In a statement from its foreign ministry, Egypt condemned Israel's "repeated violations" of the truce and demanded all parties "exercise the utmost restraint", after Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 28 people on Saturday.

Israeli forces are due to allow the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen on Sunday on a trial basis and to allow only the "limited movement of people", not aid shipments.

 

Arab World

NGOs: Türkiye Blocks Aid Convoy to Syria's Kobane

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
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NGOs: Türkiye Blocks Aid Convoy to Syria's Kobane

Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP
Members of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrive in Kobane on January 23, 2026, after withdrawing from areas in eastern Syria. © AFP

Turkish authorities have blocked a convoy carrying aid to Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria encircled by the Syrian army, NGOs and a Turkish MP said on Saturday.

They said the aid was blocked before it reached the Türkiye -Syria border, despite an agreement announced on Friday between the Syrian government and the country's Kurdish minority to gradually integrate the Kurds' military and civilian institutions into the state.

Twenty-five lorries containing water, milk, baby formula and blankets collected in Diyarbakir, the main city in Türkiye's predominantly Kurdish southeast, "were prevented from crossing the border", said the Diyarbakir Solidarity and Protection Platform, which organized the aid campaign, AFP reported.

"Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable, both from the point of view of humanitarian law and from the point of view of moral responsibility," said the platform, which brings together several NGOs.

Earlier this week, residents of Kobane told AFP they were running out of food, water and electricity because the city was overwhelmed with people fleeing the advance of the Syrian army.

Kurdish forces accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic.

"The trucks are still waiting in a depot on the highway," said Adalet Kaya, an MP from Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party who was accompanying the convoy.

"We will continue negotiations today. We hope they will be able to cross at the Mursitpinar border post," he told AFP.

Mursitpinar is located on the Turkish side of the border, across from Kobane.

Turkish authorities have kept the border crossing closed since 2016, while occasionally opening it briefly to allow humanitarian aid to pass through.

DEM and Türkiye's main opposition CHP called this week for Mursitpinar to be opened "to avoid a humanitarian tragedy".

Turkish authorities said aid convoys should use the Oncupinar border crossing, 180 kilometres (110 miles) away.

"It's not just a question of distance. We want to be sure the aid reaches Kobane and is not redirected elsewhere by Damascus, which has imposed a siege," said Kaya.

After months of deadlock and fighting, Damascus and the Syrian Kurds announced an agreement on Friday that would see the forces and administration of Syria's Kurdish autonomous region gradually integrated into the Syrian state.

Kobane is around 200 kilometres from the Kurds' stronghold in Syria's far northeast.

Kurdish forces liberated the city from a lengthy siege by the ISIS group in 2015 and it took on symbolic value as their first major victory against the militants.

Kobane is hemmed in by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides, pending the entry into the force of Friday's agreement.

Arab World

Lebanon's Government Approves a Deal to Transfer Syrian Prisoners Back to Syria

The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
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Lebanon's Government Approves a Deal to Transfer Syrian Prisoners Back to Syria

The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison
The main Homs prison was emptied when Assad fell in December 2024. But a year on, its wards are among those in Syria's prisons and lockups that are filling again with security detainees. REUTERS/John Davison

Lebanon’s Cabinet approved an agreement to transfer Syrian prisoners serving their sentences in Lebanon back to their home country.

The issue of prisoners has been a sore point as the neighboring countries seek to recalibrate their relations following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides. Many Lebanese resent the decades-long occupation of their country by Syrian forces that ended in 2005. Many Syrians resent the role played by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah when it entered Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government.

A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus had asked Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials said Beirut would not release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately.

The deal approved late Friday appeared to resolve that tension. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said other issues remain to be resolved between the two countries, including the fate of Lebanese believed to have been disappeared into Syrian prisons during Assad’s rule and the demarcation of the border between the two countries.

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that about 300 prisoners would be transferred as a result of the agreement.

Protesters gathered in a square below the government palace in downtown Beirut ahead of the Cabinet vote to call for amnesty for Lebanese prisoners, including some who joined militant groups fighting against Assad in Syria. Some of the protesters called for the release of cleric Ahmad al-Assir, imprisoned for his role in 2013 clashes that killed 18 Lebanese army soldiers.

“The state found solutions for the Syrian youth who are heroes and belong to the Syrian revolution who have been imprisoned for 12 years,” said protester Khaled Al- Bobbo. “But in the same files there are also Lebanese detainees. ... We demand that just as they found solutions for the Syrians, they must also find solutions for the people of this country.”