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Israel Says Normalizing Ties with Turkey Hinges on Closure of Hamas’ Istanbul Office

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, prior to their meeting in Istanbul, February 1, 2020. (AP)
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, prior to their meeting in Istanbul, February 1, 2020. (AP)
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Israel Says Normalizing Ties with Turkey Hinges on Closure of Hamas’ Istanbul Office

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, prior to their meeting in Istanbul, February 1, 2020. (AP)
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, prior to their meeting in Istanbul, February 1, 2020. (AP)

Israel relayed a statement to Ankara that there would be no thaw in relations until the Hamas office in Istanbul is shut down, the Israel’s Ynet reported on Monday.

Israel has made this a precondition to returning its ambassador to Ankara.

Israel issued a statement to Turkey on Monday, saying it will not normalize its relations with Ankara until it shutters the activities of the Hamas office, which effectively operates as a military wing.

The office is responsible for directing terrorist activities in the West Bank, recruiting Palestinians for terrorist activities, financing terrorist activities in the West Bank and transferring funds to Hamas' military infrastructure, political sources in Tel Aviv told Ynet.

Bilateral ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv have been strained for over a decade, ever since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli soldiers seized the “freedom flotilla” sailing towards the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the blockade against it.

Both countries pulled out their ambassadors respectively in 2018, downgrading their ties to the level of charges d'affaires.

The crisis did not impact economic, commercial and tourist ties between them. In fact, the cooperation increased and Haifa Port became a key station for Turkish trade to the Arab world (via Jordan). The volume of trade between the two sides exceeds USD6 billion.

Ankara would like better ties with Israel, but the Israeli policy towards the Palestinians remains “unacceptable”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month.

“The Palestine policy is our red line. It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable,” he added.

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Arab World

Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)

Geneva has hosted a third “roundtable” of meetings involving Sudanese political and civil groups aimed at bridging the gap between the country’s warring parties. These talks, coordinated by the French organization Promediation, follow similar meetings held previously in Cairo and Geneva. The primary goals are to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians.

The two-day meetings, which began on Monday, include representatives from the Coordination of Democratic Civil Forces (Tagadum), the pro-army Democratic Bloc coalition, and armed movements aligned with the bloc. However, some groups have announced their boycott of the meetings.

The Democratic Bloc has shown conflicting stances on attending the Geneva talks. Mohammed Zakaria, spokesperson for the bloc and a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced his group’s decision not to participate.

Omar Khalafallah, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party and another bloc spokesperson, refuted Zakaria’s statement, insisting that the bloc would attend the meetings to promote a national vision.

A source within the Democratic Bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings revealed significant internal divisions in the coalition. The JEM, led by current Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, appears to be charting its own course, which the source described as a form of defection.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sharif Mohammed Osman, a leader in Tagadum and the political secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, explained that the meetings seek to achieve consensus on ending the war through negotiated solutions, starting with a humanitarian truce to ensure aid delivery and the opening of safe corridors.

These measures are considered preliminary steps toward a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he underlined.

A wide array of civilian leaders are participating in the talks, including key figures from Tagadum, such as Sudanese Congress Party leader Omar Al-Dukair, Federal Gathering Party leader Babiker Faisal, and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council Al-Hadi Idris.

Osman expressed optimism that the participants would issue a unified final statement addressing the peaceful resolution of the war and agreeing on a humanitarian truce to facilitate aid delivery.

In October, Cairo hosted a similar meeting, which resulted in a final statement signed by the participating groups, except for the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi faction and the JEM – Jibril Ibrahim faction, which refused to endorse the Cairo declaration despite attending the discussions.

Promediation, a French organization supported by the French and Swiss foreign ministries, has played a consistent role in Sudanese affairs. Since June 2022, it has organized roundtable discussions, initially focusing on negotiations between Darfuri armed movements before expanding its scope to include Sudanese political and civil forces in the wake of the war.