Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that Washington rejected a Sudanese request to separate between the issue of normalizing ties with Israel from a US decision on removing Sudan's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The US is pushing for a peace agreement between the two sides before the presidential elections in November, a Sudanese official source said.
The source expressed fears from losing the chance of removing Sudan from the terrorism sponsors list, which paralyzes the government performance and impedes the reintegration of the country into the international community.
“Sudanese officials should take a decision in this regard as quickly as possible since only two weeks separate us from the presidential election campaigns. After this period, the Republican candidate would not benefit from the normalization of ties,” the source added.
However, speeding up any peace agreement with Israel is still opposed by several members of the ruling coalition parties including the National Umma Party and the Communist Party.
Sudan's acting Foreign Affairs Minister Omar Qamareddine told France 24 channel on Friday that his country has discussed with Washington the issue of removing Khartoum from the list of sponsors of terrorism for several years and that talks concerning normalizing ties with Israel is separate from this issue.
The military component of the transitional sovereign council, headed by Abdel-Fattah Burhan, supports normalizing ties with Israel and considers in Sudan's benefit.
However, the civil component of the council believes that the Transitional Government does not possess any “authorization” to decide on the normalizing process.
Last week, Vice president of the sovereign council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said his country will continue to strive towards building relations with Israel.
Speaking to television channel Sudania24, Dagalo said establishing relations with Israel will fulfill a promise by the US to remove Sudan from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
