A Sudanese official confirmed that the decision to normalize relations with Israel was taken without reference to the ruling institutions, while other officials continue to justify the decision by interests and not clash with the constitutional document, coinciding with the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcing a meeting with the Israelis in the coming weeks.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, a member of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Siddiq Tower, said that the decision to normalize normalization with Israel was taken individually by the head of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, without referring to the governing institutions concerned with adjudicating such issues.
Tower said that the United States obligated the Sudanese government to pay money from the sustenance of its people in exchange for removing it from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.
He added that normalization with Israel was not initially linked to removing Sudan from the list of terrorism, but it soon entered as one of the items in this case.
This comes after Brigadier General Al-Taher Abu Hajjah, the media advisor to the head of the Sovereignty Council, announced that the separation between normalization with Israel and removing Sudan from the terrorism list appears "like separating the soul from the body."
As Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen previously announced to Al-Sudani newspaper that the decision to normalize normalization was a comprehensive decision agreed upon by the ruling parties in Sudan.
In turn, the Sudanese Minister of Justice, Nasreddin Abdul-Bari, defended yesterday, Saturday, the normalization of normalization, and said that the constitutional declaration document signed in August 2019 "does not place restrictions other than the interest, independence and balance in the government's exercise of the authority to set and manage foreign policy, and does not prevent the establishment of relations with Israel." .
He pointed out that the transitional government is mandated by the constitutional document to manage foreign policy in balance, independence and in accordance with the interests of the Sudanese, which change with time and circumstances, considering that this policy should not determine individual or party ideological trends and convictions, but rather interests only.
Siddiq Tower: Normalization with Israel was not initially linked to removing Sudan from the list of terrorism, but it soon entered as one of the items (Al Jazeera)
A recent meeting
In a related context, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry reported that Sudan and Israel had reached a decision to end the state of hostility, normalize the relationship between them, and start economic and commercial dealings, with an initial focus on agriculture.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that it had been agreed that two delegations would meet in the coming weeks to negotiate and conclude cooperation agreements in areas most notably agriculture, trade, economy, aviation and immigration.
The statement indicated the commitment of the United States and Israel to help Sudan restore its sovereign immunity, improve food security, exploit its economic potential, and fight what it called terrorism.
He also added that Sudan’s decision comes within the framework of the major changes taking place in it, including the Sudanese revolution.
Rejection and protest
The step of normalization is facing widespread rejection in the Sudanese political and popular circles. In an opinion poll prepared by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha early this month, only 13% of the Sudanese supported normalization, compared to 79% opposition.
The opposition National Umma Party expressed in a statement its rejection of the move, and the Secretary-General of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, Adel Hassan Hamza, said that they issued a fatwa prohibiting normalization.
The Popular Congress Party in Sudan called on Saturday to take to the streets to drop the normalization decision with Israel.
Celebrating Netanyahu
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an Israeli delegation will soon travel to Sudan to discuss the terms of the normalization agreement and ways of cooperation in several fields, noting that many other countries will join the normalization agreements.
"After 25 years, we have achieved 3 peace agreements. This is not a luck or a coincidence, but rather the result of a clear policy that we led and made all efforts to achieve them, contrary to the positions of all experts who said this is not possible," he added at the start of his cabinet’s weekly session.
Netanyahu stressed that he was working "on the basis of peace for peace, and peace from the logic of force, peace without withdrawals and the uprooting of citizens."
He considered that "this agreement is good not only for the heart, but also for security and the pocket. We are changing the map of the Middle East. Israel is now connected to the whole world thanks to our policy that we will continue to follow."