Sudan Signs Deal Normalizing Ties with Israel, Agrees Aid Deal

FILE PHOTO: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington, US, February 12, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
FILE PHOTO: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington, US, February 12, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
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Sudan Signs Deal Normalizing Ties with Israel, Agrees Aid Deal

FILE PHOTO: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington, US, February 12, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
FILE PHOTO: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington, US, February 12, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Sudan signed Wednesday the "Abraham Accords" normalizing ties with Israel, alongside an aid agreement promising $1 billion annual World Bank financing during an unprecedented visit by the US treasury chief.

The deals were signed less than a month after Washington removed Khartoum from its state sponsors of terrorism blacklist, a move which followed Sudan's agreement to normalize ties with Israel in October.

It is a culmination of efforts by Sudan's transitional civilian-majority government -- which took power after the April 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir -- to forge closer ties with the US.

"We congratulate the civilian-led transitional government on its signature today of the Abraham Accords Declaration, which will help further Sudan on its transformative path to stability, security, and economic opportunity," the US embassy said a Tweet.

"The agreement allows Sudan, Israel and other signers of the Abraham Accords to build mutual trust and increase cooperation in the region."

Wednesday's signing made Sudan the third Arab country to ink the "Abraham Accords" after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain last year.

Morocco has agreed a "normalization" with Israel that restores past relations.

Aid and debt relief
The accords were signed by Sudan's justice minister Nasr Abdelbari and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"We welcome the great closeness between Israel and other neighboring countries in the region, as well as the start of diplomatic relations," Abdelbari said at the signing ceremony.

"We will also work in the near future to strengthen and expand these relations."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi welcomed the signing.

"Sudan's signing of the Abraham Accords is an important step in advancing regional normalization agreements in the Middle East," Ashkenazi wrote on Twitter, thanking the US administration for "its constant efforts to promote peace and stability" throughout the Middle East.

"I hope that this agreement will soon bring progress in the dialogue and normalization between Israel and Sudan and promote the development of relations between our two countries," he added.

During his one-day visit, Mnuchin met with head of state General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Their talks focused on Sudan's deteriorating "economic situation, US aid to Sudan and debt relief," Khartoum's government said.

Sudan's removal from the US terrorism blacklist last month has opened it up for aid, debt relief and investment.

Sudan's acting finance minister Hiba Ahmed and Mnuchin "signed a memorandum of understanding in Khartoum to provide a same-day bridge financing facility to clear Sudan's arrears to the World Bank," her office said.

"This move will enable Sudan to regain access to over $1 billion in annual financing from the World Bank for the first time in 27 years," the finance ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said such international financing will help support "major infrastructure and other development project throughout Sudan."

Sudan has been undergoing a rocky transition since the army toppled Bashir in 2019 following months of mass protests against his rule.

It is struggling with a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with chronic hard currency shortages and galloping inflation.

Its external debt is estimated to be around $60 billion.

On Wednesday, the US treasury chief also met with Sudan's water minister to discuss the long-running dispute with Egypt and Ethiopia over Addis Ababa's gigantic Nile dam.



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.