Sudan’s Burhan: Abraham Accords Stemmed from our Belief in Tolerance, Coexistence

The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, meets with Bahraini aid officials in Sudan's capital Khartoum, Sept. 15, 2020. (AFP)
The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, meets with Bahraini aid officials in Sudan's capital Khartoum, Sept. 15, 2020. (AFP)
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Sudan’s Burhan: Abraham Accords Stemmed from our Belief in Tolerance, Coexistence

The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, meets with Bahraini aid officials in Sudan's capital Khartoum, Sept. 15, 2020. (AFP)
The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, meets with Bahraini aid officials in Sudan's capital Khartoum, Sept. 15, 2020. (AFP)

The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, said his government signed the Abraham Accords with the United States and Israel out of its conviction of the importance of spreading the values of tolerance and coexistence among peoples of all religions and ethnicities.

Burhan was addressing, via video conference, a youth summit in Israel.

Sudan signed the Abraham Accords based on its sincere effort to affirm and establish the values of peace, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, respect for freedoms and religions, and acceptance of others, he stated.

Israeli students organized the Israel Summit - an international movement devoted to discussion on university campuses between Israel and students and youth of the world, with the participation of international speakers. The event – sponsored by the renowned Harvard and Columbia Universities - also features professional exhibitions and opportunities for academic exchange, and aims to expand students’ horizons in Israel.

This year’s summit, which was held on Feb. 7-11, was attended by a number of political figures, including Burhan, President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili, former presidents, a number of US Senate members, scientists and university professors, most notably the CEO of Moderna, the maker of the Covid-19 vaccine.

For the first time in Sudan’s history, Sudanese students and youth participated in such an Israeli gathering, along with their peers from other Arab and Islamic countries.

Burhan urged the Sudanese youth participating in the summit to convey their country’s “vision to spread peace and prosperity on the planet.”

He added: “Our vision is to follow the path of global tolerance, establish concepts of world peace, and contribute to the global and local renaissance, through exchanging experiences with the countries of the region and friendly countries.”

In early January, Sudan signed 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.



Israeli Military Issues Thousands of Call-up Notices

FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
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Israeli Military Issues Thousands of Call-up Notices

FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS

The Israeli military was issuing call-up notices to thousands of reservists on Saturday to support an expansion of its offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported, after the prime minister announced that his upcoming visit to Azerbaijan was postponed.
The reservists will be deployed to Israel's border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, replacing regular soldiers who will lead a new offensive in Gaza, the news site Ynet reported.
The military had no immediate comment, Reuters said.
Earlier, the prime minister's office announced that Benjamin Netanyahu was rescheduling his May 7-11 visit to Azerbaijan, citing recent developments in Gaza and Syria.
The office, which also cited "the intense diplomatic and security schedule", did not announce a new date for the visit. Netanyahu had been expected to meet with President Ilham Aliyev.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the security cabinet had approved plans for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip.
Israel broke a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March after seeking to extend it without engaging in talks to permanently end the war. Hamas says it would release the remaining hostages in Gaza only in exchange for an end to the war.
The military has since intensified its bombing campaign and carved out wide buffer zones in Gaza, squeezing the 2.3 million population into an ever narrower zone in the center of the enclave and along the coast and shutting off aid supplies.
Israel's leadership has asserted that it is committed to its war goals of defeating Hamas and bringing back the last 59 hostages held in Gaza.
So far, 192 hostages have been released through negotiations and Israeli military operations since November 2023. Most had been abducted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory war has reduced much of the territory to rubble and killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza.