The Islamist rulers of Gaza, Hamas, condemned Sudan on Friday for agreeingto move ahead with normalising ties with Israel, breaking with decades ofsupport for Palestinian militant groups.
On Thursday, during the first visit to Khartoum by an Israeli foreignminister, the two governments agreed to move forward with the normalisationprocess agreed in January 2021.
Hamas condemned the move, which “contradicts the general Sudanese stancethat is against the normalisation of ties with the Israeli occupation stateand supports the just Palestinian cause”.
In a statement, it called “on the Sudanese leadership to backtrack on thisdecision that contradicts the interests of the brotherly people of Sudanand would only serve the Israeli occupation’s agenda.”
During the three-decade rule of Islamist general Omar al-Bashir, Sudan wasone of the staunchest supporters of Hamas and other militant groups, butsince his ouster following mass protests in April 2019, the policy has beendropped.
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A spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group,described the move as “a disgrace for an Arab country of the stature ofSudan”.
In 2020, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates all normalised theirrelations with Israel, breaking with longstanding Arab League policy thatthere should be no normalisation without a peace agreement with thePalestinians.
In January 2021, Sudan formally agreed to normalise relations with Israelin exchange for the United States removing it from its list of “statesponsors of terrorism”, but the ties were never formalised. APP/AFP
