Sudanese Envoy Visits Israel to Promote Ties

 Former US President Donald Trump in a phone call with Israel's Netanyahu to discuss the normalization agreement between Sudan and Israel, October 2020. (FILE/Getty Images)
Former US President Donald Trump in a phone call with Israel's Netanyahu to discuss the normalization agreement between Sudan and Israel, October 2020. (FILE/Getty Images)
TT

Sudanese Envoy Visits Israel to Promote Ties

 Former US President Donald Trump in a phone call with Israel's Netanyahu to discuss the normalization agreement between Sudan and Israel, October 2020. (FILE/Getty Images)
Former US President Donald Trump in a phone call with Israel's Netanyahu to discuss the normalization agreement between Sudan and Israel, October 2020. (FILE/Getty Images)

A Sudanese envoy was in Israel on Wednesday in order to promote ties between the two countries, a source with close knowledge of the visit said.

The presidential envoy arrived in Israel at the beginning of the week, the source said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Israeli and Sudanese government spokespeople.

Sudan moved toward normalizing ties with Israel in 2020. Envoys have travelled between Israel and Sudan since then, though no official pact has yet been signed.

Sudan's military is seen to have led the move toward Israel while civilian groups have been more reluctant about it. The Sudanese military seized power in the country on Oct. 25, ending a partnership with civilian political parties that began after the army toppled Omar al-Bashir as Sudan's ruler in 2019.

White House officials have repeatedly called on Israel’s leaders to pressure the Sudanese army to end the coup and resume the Sudan's transition to democracy.

Last month, a high-ranking official Israeli security delegation arrived in Khartoum to meet with Sudanese military and security leaders.



UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
TT

UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)

The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the agency had not been affected by US President Donald Trump's halt to US foreign aid funding or by an Israeli ban on its operations.

"UNRWA currently is not receiving any US funding so there is no direct impact of the more recent decisions related to the UN system for UNRWA," Dorothee Klaus told reporters at UNRWA's field office in Lebanon.

US funding to UNRWA was suspended last year until March 2025 under a deal reached by US lawmakers and after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

The UN has said it had fired nine UNRWA staff who may have been involved and said it would investigate all accusations made.

Klaus said that UNRWA Lebanon had also placed four staff members on administrative leave as it investigated allegations they had breached the UN principle of neutrality.

One UNRWA teacher had already been suspended last year and a Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed in September in an Israeli strike - was found to have had an UNRWA job.

Klaus also said there was "no direct impact" on the agency's Lebanon operations from a new Israeli law banning UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and that "UNRWA will continue fully operating in Lebanon."

The law, adopted in October, bans UNRWA's operation on Israeli land - including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally - and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan. 30.

UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Its commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday that UNRWA has been the target of a "fierce disinformation campaign" to "portray the agency as a terrorist organization."