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Australia Drops Recognition of Jerusalem as Capital of Israel

Al-Aqsa Mosque general view. File Photo/AFP
Al-Aqsa Mosque general view. File Photo/AFP
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Australia Drops Recognition of Jerusalem as Capital of Israel

Al-Aqsa Mosque general view. File Photo/AFP
Al-Aqsa Mosque general view. File Photo/AFP

Australia announced Tuesday it would no longer recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a decision that was welcomed by Palestinians but condemned by Israelis.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Jerusalem's status should be decided through peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, reversing a decision by the previous conservative government.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh welcomed the Australian government's decision, saying it affirms Canberra’s commitment to the two-state solution.

“The Australian government's decision falls in line with international law and international legitimacy, and enhances the chances of establishing an independent Palestinian state,” the PM said.

“It is also a message to Israel that the world will not accept its annexation of the Palestinian territories,” he added.

Shtayyeh praised his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, leader of the Labor Party, and his government for this “wise and bold decision,” hoping that Australia will recognize the State of Palestine on the June 4, 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as its capital.

In return, Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed disappointment in Australia's changed position.

“Jerusalem is the eternal undivided capital of Israel and nothing will change that,” Lapid said in a statement.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mocking Lapid and holding him responsible for the Australian decision.

In 2018, an Australian conservative government led by Scott Morrison followed former US president Donald Trump's lead in naming West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

The Guardian newspaper said on Monday that Australia has quietly dropped its recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, unwinding language adopted by Scott Morrison’s government after the US moved its own embassy from Tel Aviv.

It said that in the past few days, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has deleted two sentences from its website that were first added after then prime minister Morrison unveiled a new Australian policy four years ago.

The freshly deleted sentences said: “Consistent with this longstanding policy, in December 2018, Australia recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of the Israeli government.”

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Sudan Army Says Enters Key RSF-Held Al-Jazira State Capital

Sudanese people rally to celebrate in Meroe in the country's Northern State on January 11, 2025, after the army announced entering key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (AFP)
Sudanese people rally to celebrate in Meroe in the country's Northern State on January 11, 2025, after the army announced entering key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (AFP)
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Sudan Army Says Enters Key RSF-Held Al-Jazira State Capital

Sudanese people rally to celebrate in Meroe in the country's Northern State on January 11, 2025, after the army announced entering key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (AFP)
Sudanese people rally to celebrate in Meroe in the country's Northern State on January 11, 2025, after the army announced entering key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (AFP)

The Sudanese military and allied armed groups launched an offensive Saturday on key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, entering the city after more than a year of paramilitary control, the army said.

In a statement, the armed forces "congratulated" the Sudanese people on "our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning".

Sudan's army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries have been at war since April 2023, leading to what the UN calls the world's worst displacement crisis and declarations of famine in parts of the northeast African country.

A video the army shared on social media showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani, after an army source told AFP they had "stormed the city's eastern entrance".

The footage appeared to be shot on the western side of Hantoub Bridge in northern Wad Madani, which has been under RSF control since December 2023.

The office of army-allied government spokesman and Information and Culture Minister Khalid al-Aiser said the army had "liberated" the city.

Sudan's foreign ministry hailed "the great victory achieved today", saying the army had regained Wad Madani.

The army, meanwhile, said its forces were "currently working on clearing the remnants of the rebels inside the city".

With a months-long communications blackout in place, AFP was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground.

Wad Madani is a strategic crossroads of key supply highways linking several states, and is the nearest major town to the capital Khartoum.

A victory in Al-Jazira would be the army's biggest breakthrough since it seized control of the capital's twin city of Omdurman nearly a year ago.

"The army and allied fighters have spread out around us across the city's streets," one eyewitness told AFP from his home in central Wad Madani, requesting anonymity for his safety.

- Celebrations -

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

But the paramilitaries specifically have been notorious for summary killings, rampant looting, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.

The United States on Tuesday said the RSF had "committed genocide" and imposed sanctions on its leader, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

The local resistance committee, one of hundreds of pro-democracy volunteer groups across the country coordinating frontline aid, hailed the Wad Madani advance as an end to "the tyranny" of the RSF.

Eyewitnesses in army-controlled cities across Sudan reported dozens taking to the streets in celebration.

Chants of "one army, one people" broke out in army-controlled Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Wad Madani, an eyewitness told AFP, requesting anonymity for their safety.

Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 12 million people, more than three million of whom have fled across borders.

In the early months of the war, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira, before a lightning RSF offensive displaced upwards of 300,000 in December 2023, according to the UN.

Most have been repeatedly displaced since, as the feared paramilitaries moved further and further south.

"We're going back!" crowds in the de facto capital of Port Sudan on the Red Sea shouted in the street on Saturday after the army's announcements.

The RSF still holds most of the rest of the central agricultural state, as well as nearly all of Sudan's western Darfur region and swathes of the country's south.

The army controls the north and east, as well as parts of the capital.