Journey in search of normalization ... What did the proof return from the UAE to the people of Sudan?

Al Jazeera Net - Special

In the wake of the return of the President of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, from Abu Dhabi yesterday, the Sudanese questioned a lot about the results achieved by Al-Burhan and his accompanying delegation from a trip that many viewed as a prelude to extricating the country from its pain, especially economic, especially after the news spread that its primary purpose is normalization With Israel as desired by the host country.

Amidst the astonishment of the attendees, the head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, uprooted his colleague’s rifle in the “Wadi Al-Hamar” area in the Nile State, days after the outbreak of the popular revolution in December 2018.

The occasion attended by the ousted President Omar Al-Bashir was one of its paragraphs, a competition in the accuracy of the aiming, and when the next officer failed, he pulled out the proof of his colleague's rifle and hit the target perfectly, amidst the amazement and admiration of the audience.

Al-Burhan, who was serving as the army inspector at the time, succeeded in striking all his corrections on the target in what is known in the Sudanese army's tradition as "the cat's foot", where the shots in (the takht) converge in what resembles the feet of a cat.

This incident succeeded in diagnosing the character of Burhan, who brilliantly managed to jump from fourth place in the hierarchy of the Sudanese army to become commander in chief in just two years.

The Sudanese people ask a lot these days why Al-Burhan’s heart clung to normalization with Israel? .. where he suddenly met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda last February, and recently he repeated the ball again, where he stayed for three nights in the infirmity of the UAE, Abu Dhabi, to investigate in search of An achievement in the file of Sudanese-American relations seems to be the main dowry of normalization with Israel.

Normalization in the dark

. Team Burhan's contact with the file of the relationship with Israel was not interrupted by the political rebuke that he received from the political incubator represented by the Forces of Freedom and Change after his return from the Ugandan capital Kampala last year. According to the American New York Times, the UAE's imprint was present in the details of that visit.

The army commander took his soldiers to the headquarters of the General Command in Khartoum, where, after his meeting with Netanyahu, he informed the top generals of the results of the visit. He held a press conference in the headquarters of the General Command in which he presented a political rationale for the importance of normalization with Israel, then he opened the Sudanese airspace for transit flights from Israel, and received an airport Khartoum, an Israeli medical team tried to save Ambassador Najwa Qadah Al-Dam - the engineer of the Al-Burhan and Netanyahu meeting - who had contracted Corona disease, but the hand of the Mannun was faster.

He whispered in Pompeo's ear

when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Khartoum last August and met with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, who assured him that normalization is outside the jurisdiction of the transitional government.

And before he left, Pompeo met with General Al-Burhan, and nothing was filtered about that meeting except a brief announcement and a historical photo in which the two men abandoned wearing masks in the Corona season to show the broad smile on the two men's faces, but those close to the proof confirmed that the mysterious general's message was different. About those that the Prime Minister spoke out for.

The road to Abu Dhabi,

according to close sources, the UAE would have preferred for Lieutenant General Burhan with the Prime Minister to come with him at the first launch of Abu Dhabi's mission as a regional agent for the normalization file, but Hamdok was not enthusiastic about the idea for fear that it would create problems for him with the political incubator.

Hamdok only informed the American side, represented by the National Security Adviser at the White House, that the negotiating delegation represented the transitional government, in its civilian and military parts.

While Al-Burhan was enthusiastic about playing the role of the leader who makes difficult decisions, he did not care who would meet in this task, but he requested that the delegation be represented by representatives of the Council of Ministers.

Minister of Justice Nasruddin Abdel Bari, Minister of Justice, was chosen to legalize the mission, as it is understood that it is within the framework of a legal settlement to remove Sudan from the American list of states sponsoring terrorism.

The second reason is that Minister Abdel Bari, who has completed his graduate studies in the field of law in the United States, and is said to have her nationality, is closer and familiar with the file than other ministers, and Hamdok has not forgotten to assign the keeper of his secrets and the director of his office Ali Bakhit to a role, even if limited, in this sensitive task. .

Al-Burhan and Pompeo meet at the end of last August in Khartoum (Anadolu Agency)

In the halls of negotiations,

according to American sources, the file was managed by Jared Kushner, the special advisor to US President Donald Trump, and a number of members of the US National Security Council, and it was managed far from the US State Department, which led to a setback for the mission - according to observers - as Sudanese experts such as Donald Booth, the special envoy for Sudan, and others familiar with the Sudanese issue.

The Sudanese side adhered to the rule of actions, not words, as Sudan’s demands for approval of normalization with Israel and establishing diplomatic relations were clear and specific, which included a financial aid package in the range of $ 10 billion to be divided over the years of the transitional period, in addition to removing Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

The demands also included the restoration of the sovereign immunity of the State of Sudan through legislation from Congress in order to close the doors to any groups trying to sue Sudan in the future, such as the group of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as an American decision to exempt Sudan's debts to the United States so that Sudan can re-borrow and deal with a number of American institutions. Sudan also made another request that Washington pledge to support Sudan in negotiating with the Paris Club and encourage all parties to exempt Sudan’s debts as part of the debt forgiveness initiative for poor countries.

What's in the US bag?

It has become clear from the first day of the negotiations that the American delegation, whose most prominent member was in charge of the Gulf file in the US National Security Council, was limited in its mandate, and that its view of Sudan was very deficient, according to an informed source that the Americans thought they were dealing with a poor African country thirsting for normalization.

According to the same source, all that the Americans offered were broad lines that did not contain timetables and an annual humanitarian aid package not exceeding $ 650 million, and that the rest of the Sudan bill must be paid by the brothers, led by the Saudi Emirates.

However, according to the same source, the host country was content with diplomatic expressions, "We continued to support the brothers in Sudan, and we will continue to do so in the future," while the Burhan delegation needed economic logic and a language of numbers to address the opposition to normalization, which starts from the far right and does not stand on the far left.

Al-Burhan asks that

one of those who said goodbye to Al-Burhan when he left Khartoum confirmed that the man was at the height of optimism and feeling the euphoria of victory, but when he returned to Khartoum in the middle of the day on Wednesday, Al-Burhan requested that he go to the "guest house" so that he would rest with a promise to discuss the harvest The trip with the transitional government partners.

So far, no meeting has been held for the Security and Defense Council, which is chaired by al-Burhan and includes the prime minister, the ministers of justice, foreign affairs, defense and interior, and all members of the Sovereignty Council.

The Security and Defense Council was the umbrella used by Al-Burhan when he wanted an emergency landing in the government of Abdullah Hamdok, while the Cabinet settled with a session that focused on Sudan’s readiness to pay compensation to the victims of the US destroyer "Cole" and the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but close sources confirmed that the proof met Yesterday morning, Thursday morning, with the members of the military component of the Sovereignty Council and briefed them on the harvest of the Abu Dhabi trip, and a meeting was arranged for Al-Burhan and Hamdok.

Have the desires for normalization subsided?

Although the Abu Dhabi tour was titled a fiasco, those who know al-Burhan know that he will return to the attack. The Trump administration is still insisting on bringing a number of Arab countries into the fold of normalization alongside the UAE and Bahrain.

Sources close to the decision-making factory in the White House suggested that the Trump administration would initiate actual steps to remove Sudan from the terrorism list even without congressional approval, which would revive the proof's efforts to market normalization with the Hebrew state, while Tel Aviv urged Washington to respond to Sudan's political and economic demands so that the country becomes poor A model tempting normalization.

Observers say that the winds favorable to normalization coincide with General Al-Burhan. The first goal of Al-Burhan will be achieved if he manages to remove Sudan from the American list of countries sponsoring terrorism with an aid package that makes success an ally of the transitional period.

The observers conclude that from here the history of the political proof will begin as an ally of the West, as the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat did through the Camp David Accords. More importantly, justice in Sudan or the International Criminal Court will not dare to track the proof after the end of his rule as one of the top field leaders in Darfur. Western Sudan) In the years of war there, this file is brandished by the enemies as well as the friends of the man who fear the deception of politicians and their moods.