Palestine slams Sudan-Israel normalisation

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (MAUNEWS/UITV/IANS)

Ramallah, Oct 24 (IANS): Palestinian authorities have slammed Sudan's decision to normalise ties with Israel in exchange for the US to remove Khartoum from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

On Friday, Sudan became the third Arab nation after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain to normalise relations with Israel in the past three months under the auspices of the US.

US President Donald Trump made the announcement at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudan's Sovereignty Council chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on the phone with him.

Sudan, which is recovering from civil unrest and the civil war before that which led to South Sudan seceding from it, will be the fifth Arab country to have normal relations with Israel.

The normalising of Israeli ties by the three countries this year ends 26 years of stalemate since Jordan reconnected with it in 1994.

Egypt normalised ties with Israel in 1979.

But condemning and rejecting Sudan's decision, the Palestinian Presidency said: "No one has the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause."

It also said that the path to a comprehensive and just peace must be based on international law, resolutions of international legitimacy, and specific references, in a way that leads to ending the Israeli occupation of the land of Palestine, Xinhua news agency.

"The Palestinian leadership will take the necessary decisions to protect the legitimate interests and rights of our Palestinian people."

Wasel Abu Youssef, the member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Executive Committee, told reporters that the development was a "new stab in the back of the Palestinian people".

He added that Sudan's move represents a "betrayal of the just Palestinian cause and a departure from the Arab peace initiative".

Hazem Qassem, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a press statement that "normalization of relations between Sudan and the occupation state is a political sin, harms our Palestinian people and their just cause".

The Islamic Jihad movement said that Sudan runs toward Israel and pays huge sums of money to obtain America's satisfaction at the expense of the poor and displaced Sudanese.