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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

Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Damages Hospital in Tyre as UN ‘Alarmed’ by Escalation

People gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026. (AFP)
People gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Damages Hospital in Tyre as UN ‘Alarmed’ by Escalation

People gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026. (AFP)
People gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026. (AFP)

Lebanon said an Israeli strike hit near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre on Monday as the health ministry shared footage showing heavy damage to the facility.

The state-run National News Agency said a strike targeting an intersection near the Jabal Amel hospital "hit a building and the parking lot, resulting in a number of wounded".

The health ministry shared two videos showing damage inside a hospital ward, with rubble and debris on the ground, blown-out ceilings, blood on the floor and shattered glass, while smoke could be seen billowing from a fire at what appeared to be a heavily damaged adjacent car park.

The United Nations on Monday expressed its alarm and called for all sides to respect the ceasefire as Israel expanded its offensive into Lebanon, while negotiations to end the US-Iran war appeared in peril.

"We are deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said.

"We urge all actors to respect the cessation of hostilities and avoid further escalation."

Arab World

German, Norwegian Ministers in Abortive Beirut Trip

Cars sit in traffic on a highway as residents flee following an Israeli threat to strike Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP)
Cars sit in traffic on a highway as residents flee following an Israeli threat to strike Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP)
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German, Norwegian Ministers in Abortive Beirut Trip

Cars sit in traffic on a highway as residents flee following an Israeli threat to strike Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP)
Cars sit in traffic on a highway as residents flee following an Israeli threat to strike Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP)

Ministers from Germany and Norway had to call off a trip to Beirut on Monday as Israel continued its assault on the city, the pair's press services said.

German minister for international development Reem Alabali Radovan and Norwegian counterpart Asmund Aukrust had to abort and head back to Berlin "for military reasons" as they approached Beirut airport owing to a "rapidly worsening situation," a spokesperson for Alabali Radovan told AFP.

The ministers had hoped to make the visit to show solidarity with the Lebanese people, but their German military aircraft finally had to land in Cyprus ahead of a return to Berlin, Norwegian daily VG reported.

A Norwegian government spokesman confirmed to AFP the trip had been scrapped.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier had called on the Israeli army to hit southern Beirut, saying they were going after "terrorist" targets.

On Sunday he had ordered the scaling up of Israel's Lebanon offensive with Israeli forces hitting positions of Iran-allied Hezbollah fighters.

"More than 3,000 people have been killed since March" in Israel's deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades, Aukrust told VG by telephone.

"What is happening now makes it all the more important to show our solidarity," Aukrust added.

He said the Lebanese people "must know that where Norway is concerned we shall continue to fight for them and for international humanitarian law," he went on.

Alabali Radovan called on "all sides" to de-escalate the fighting and urged ceasefire talks.

VG reported the ministers had been scheduled to meet with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, as well as civil society groups and displaced persons.

Iran earlier stressed a ceasefire in Lebanon remained a condition for any Mideast peace deal with the United States.

Arab World

Israel Orders Strikes on South Beirut ahead of UN Meeting

Civil defense workers inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on May 31, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)
Civil defense workers inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on May 31, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)
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Israel Orders Strikes on South Beirut ahead of UN Meeting

Civil defense workers inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on May 31, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)
Civil defense workers inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on May 31, 2026. (Photo by KAWANT HAJU / AFP)

Israel said Monday it would once again target Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold mostly spared heavy attacks since April, as it stages its deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades.

The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting later Monday on Israel expanding its operations in Lebanon, and the European Union called on Israel to "stop its military escalation".

Iran, in stalled negotiations on an end to its wider war with the United States, said a Lebanon ceasefire remains a key condition for any deal.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered strikes on Beirut's usually densely populated southern suburbs, AFP reported.

"In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist organization Hezbollah and the attacks on our cities and citizens", Netanyahu and Katz "instructed the army to strike terror targets in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut", a joint statement said.

Katz said separately there would be "no calm in Beirut" if Hezbollah attacks continued, vowing to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon's Litani River.

The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee, posting on X, urged Dahiyeh residents to evacuate "to preserve their safety".

AFP journalists saw hundreds of families fleeing the southern suburbs, some on foot or on motorbikes, others in cars packed with belongings.

Hours later, a correspondent said shops were closed and the area's streets were largely deserted.

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader.

A truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire, justifying their attacks by the other's alleged breaches.

- 'Vicious aggression' -

South Beirut resident Hadi, 24, said he had hoped for some stability during the truce.

"That feeling did not last long... Our fears intensified this morning after I received a series of messages about orders to bomb the southern suburbs, which caused widespread panic, and we immediately left the area," he told AFP by phone.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly press briefing that "a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war" with the US.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said his country was facing "a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression", with the two nations set to hold a fourth round of US-hosted talks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He called the talks "the only solution to stop the war with the least possible damage".

Beirut's southern suburbs and their surroundings have been struck twice since April 8, when huge Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed hundreds in minutes.

Israel's military on Monday also issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen south Lebanon locations.

A day earlier, Israeli troops seized Beaufort castle, which commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, as the military expands its ground operations.

Israeli forces used the castle as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.