Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick

Sudan Becomes Third Arab State to Set Aside Hostilities With Israel This Year

US President Donald Trump sealed the agreement in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Washington: Israel and Sudan agreed on Friday to take steps to normalise relations in a deal brokered with the help of the United States, making Khartoum the third Arab government to set aside hostilities with Israel in the last two months.

US President Donald Trump, seeking re-election on November 3, 2020, sealed the agreement in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, senior US officials said.

Trump’s decision this week to remove Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism paved the way for the accord with Israel, marking a foreign policy achievement for the Republican president as he seeks a second term trailing in opinion polls behind Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Netanyahu hailed it as a “new era” for the region, but the Palestinian leadership, watching as more of their Arab brethren appear to give their quest for statehood a lower priority, called it a “new stab in the back.”

“The leaders agreed to the normalisation of relations between Sudan and Israel and to end the state of belligerence between their nations,” according to a joint statement issued by the three countries that also promised US help for Khartoum to secure international debt relief.

Israel and Sudan plan to begin by opening economic and trade links, with an initial focus on agriculture, the joint statement said. A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such issues as the formal establishment of diplomatic ties would be resolved later.

Trump touted the deal to reporters in the Oval Office with the Israeli and Sudanese leaders on the line in a three-way phone call, saying at least five other countries wanted to follow suit and normalise relations with Israel.

“Do you think ‘Sleepy Joe’ could have made this deal?” Trump asked Netanyahu, using the president’s pejorative nickname for Biden a day after their final, rancorous debate of the 2020 presidential campaign. “Somehow I don’t think so.”

Netanyahu, reliant on bipartisan support for Israel in Washington, responded haltingly: “Well, Mr President, one thing I can tell you, is, um, uh, we appreciate the help for peace from anyone in America.”

Trump’s aides view his pro-Israel policies as appealing to Christian evangelical voters, who are among his biggest supporters.

In recent weeks the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to agree to formal links with Israel, forged largely through shared fears of Iran.

Trump insisted the Palestinians also “are wanting to do something” but offered no proof. Palestinian leaders have condemned recent Arab overtures to Israel as a betrayal of their nationalist cause and have refused to engage with the Trump administration, seeing it as biased in favour of Israel.

Also read: Breaking Taboo, UAE, Bahrain Sign Formal Agreements With Israel at White House

“No one has the right to speak in the name of the Palestinian people and the name of the Palestinian cause,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement.

Terrorism list

Trump announced on Monday he would take Sudan off the terrorism list once it had deposited $335 million it had pledged to pay in compensation. Khartoum has since placed the funds in a special escrow account for victims of al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The White House called Trump’s intention to remove Sudan from the terrorism list a “pivotal turning point” for Khartoum, which is seeking to emerge from decades of isolation.

The military and civilian leaders of Sudan‘s transitional government have been divided over how fast and how far to go in establishing ties with Israel. A sticking point in the negotiations was Sudan‘s insistence that any announcement of Khartoum’s delisting from the terrorism designation not be explicitly linked to relations with Israel.

Thanks to President @realdonaldtrump for signing today the executive order to remove Sudan from #SSTL.
We're working closely with the US Administration & Congress to conclude the SSTL removal process in a timely manner.
We work towards int'l relations that best serve our people.

— Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) October 23, 2020

The Sudanese premier wants approval from a yet-to-be formed parliament to proceed with broader, formal normalisation, and that may not be a quick process given sensitivities and civilian-military differences. It is still unclear when the assembly will be created.

“Agreement on normalisation with Israel will be decided after completion of the constitutional institutions through the formation of the legislative council,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Gamareldin said on state television shortly after Friday’s announcement.

The new agreement was negotiated on the US side by a team that included Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who called the normalisation deals the start of a “paradigm shift” in the Middle East.

He said Sudan‘s decision was symbolically significant because it was in Khartoum in 1967 that the Arab League decided not to recognise Israel‘s right to exist.

Sudan‘s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism dates to its toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir and has made it difficult for its transitional government to access urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing.

Many in Sudan say the designation, imposed in 1993 because Washington believed Bashir was supporting militant groups, has become outdated since he was removed last year.

US congressional legislation is needed to shield Khartoum from future legal claims over past attacks to ensure the flow of payments to the embassy bombing victims and their families.

(Reuters)

Breaking Taboo, UAE, Bahrain Sign Formal Agreements With Israel at White House

Israel’s agreement with Bahrain called for “full diplomatic relations” but avoided the term normalisation.

Washington: The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements on Tuesday to establish formal ties with Israel, becoming the first Arab states in a quarter-century to break a longstanding taboo, in a strategic realignment of Middle East countries against Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted the White House ceremony, capping a dramatic month when first the UAE and then Bahrain agreed to reverse decades of ill will without a resolution of Israel‘s dispute with the Palestinians.

In front of a crowd of several hundred people on the White House lawn, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed accords with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani.

The deals, denounced by the Palestinians, make them the third and fourth Arab states to take such steps toward normalizing relations since Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

Meeting Netanyahu earlier in the Oval Office, Trump said, “We’ll have at least five or six countries coming along very quickly” to forge their own accords with Israel.

Later Trump told reporters a third Gulf Arab state, Saudi Arabia, would strike an agreement with Israel “at the right time.” The Saudi cabinet stressed in a statement the need for a “just and comprehensive solution” to the Palestinian issue.

US President Donald Trump speaks prior to signing the Abraham Accords, normalising relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbours in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani applaud at the White House in Washington on September 15, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Tom Brenner

Saudi Arabia is the biggest Gulf Arab power. Its king is the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and rules the world’s largest oil exporter. Despite its own reluctance, the kingdom’s quiet acquiescence to the agreements was seen as crucial.

‘Change the course of history’

The ceremony provided Trump with valuable imagery as he tries to hold on to power in a November 3, 2020, Presidential election. Flags of the United States, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain were in abundance.

“We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history,” Trump said from the White House balcony.

Trump called the deals “a major stride in which people of all faiths and backgrounds live together in peace and prosperity” and declared that the three Middle East countries “are going to work together, they are friends.”

The back-to-back agreements mark an improbable diplomatic victory for Trump. He has spent his presidency forecasting deals on such intractable problems as North Korea’s nuclear program only to find achievements elusive.

Bringing Israel, the UAE and Bahrain together reflect their shared concern about Iran’s rising influence in the region and development of ballistic missiles. Iran criticised both deals.

Also read: India Welcomes ‘Normalisation’ of Israel-UAE Ties, Reiterates Support for ‘Palestinian Cause’

All three of the Middle East leaders hailed the agreements and Trump’s role in glowing terms, with Netanyahu saying it gave hope to “all the people of Abraham.”

But the UAE and Bahraini officials both sought to reassure the Palestinians that their countries were not abandoning them or their quest for statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despite the Palestinian leadership having decried the deals as a betrayal of their cause.

In a sign that regional strife is sure to continue while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel during the ceremony, the Israeli military said.

Israel‘s Magen David Adom ambulance service said paramedics treated two men for light injuries from flying glass in Ashdod, and four others suffered shock.

“This is not peace, this is surrender in return for the continuation of the aggression,” read a tweet posted on the Twitter account of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Trump’s evangelical support

With Trump seeking four more years, the accords could help shore up support among pro-Israel Christian evangelical voters, an important part of his political base.

Another target of the White House plans, in addition to Saudi Arabia, is Oman, whose leader spoke with Trump last week. Oman sent its ambassador to Tuesday’s ceremony, a senior U.S. official said. No Saudi representative attended.

Meeting the Emirati Foreign Minister before the ceremony, Trump thanked the UAE for being first in the Gulf to agree on normalising ties with Israel and left little doubt the Iran issue was overhanging the event.

Also read: Bahrain Follows Emirates in Normalising Ties With Israel

Trump predicted that Iran, under heavy U.S. sanctions, would want to reach a deal with Washington, which has been trying to get it to renegotiate an International nuclear Accord. Tehran shows no sign of budging.

Israel‘s pact with the UAE, titled “Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations, and Full Normalization,” was more detailed and went further than the Bahraini document, declaring peace between countries that never fought a war against each other.

Israel‘s agreement with Bahrain called for “full diplomatic relations” but avoided the term normalisation.

Both documents cited the need to justly resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but neither specifically mentioned a two-state solution.

In a nod to the coronavirus, the White House encouraged but did not require participants to wear masks. It was left to the leaders whether to shake hands, and they did not do so in public. Most people in the crowd did not wear masks.

Some differences remain despite warming ties. Trump said on Tuesday he would have no problem selling advanced stealth F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, which for years has sought to obtain them. Israel, which has the F-35, objects to such a sale.

Frustrated by the Palestinians’ refusal to take part in Trump’s Middle East peace initiative, the White House has sought to bypass them in hopes they will see the deals with the UAE and Bahrain as incentives, even leverage, for peace talks.

Speaking to Fox News hours before the ceremony, Trump predicted the Palestinians would eventually forge peace with Israel or else be “left out in the cold.”

The Palestinian leadership has long accused Trump of pro-Israel bias and denounced the Arab rapprochement with Israel, even though Netanyahu agreed, in return for normalisation with the UAE, to suspend a plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Although Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke down in 2014, some Gulf Arab states and several other Arab countries have long had quiet, informal contacts with Israel.

(Reuters)

Hamas to Blame for Deadly Gaza Violence: White House

Monday was the bloodiest single day for Palestinians since the Gaza conflict in 2014. Palestinian health ministry officials said 55 protesters were killed and 2,700 injured either by live gunfire, tear gas or other means.

Washington: The White House on Monday blamed the Palestinian militant group Hamas for deadly violence on Israel’s border with Gaza where Israeli troops fatally shot dozens of Palestinian protesters.

White House spokesman Raj Shah accused Hamas‘s leaders of making a “gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt” that led to the clashes in Gaza at the same time the US was opening its new embassy in Jerusalem, a move that has fuelled Palestinian anger.

Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, Shah also declined to join with other countries, including France and Britain, in calling for Israel to exercise restraint in its response to the protests.

The White House instead reiterated the Trump administration’s refrain, in response to weeks of violence on the Israel-Gaza border, that Israel had a right to defend itself.

“The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas,” Shah said. “Hamas is intentionally and cynically provoking this response.”

The Israeli military said it was responding to violence from the protesters to defend Israel’s border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s actions were self-defense against the enclave’s ruling Hamas group.

Despite the Gaza violence and Palestinian outrage over the embassy move from Tel Aviv, Shah insisted there was no reason to believe there would be any damage to the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

The White House has offered few details on a peace plan that is still being finalised and which has drawn widespread skepticism even before its unveiling. The Palestinians say they have lost faith in the Trump administration to act as a fair mediator and have boycotted the process since President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement in December.

“I don’t think it hurts the peace plan,” Shah said. “The peace plan will be introduced at the appropriate time.”

In contrast to the scenes in Gaza, Israeli dignitaries and guests attended a ceremony in Jerusalem to open the US Embassy following its relocation from Tel Aviv. The move to Jerusalem upended decades of US policy toward Jerusalem. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Israel regards all of the city, including the eastern sector it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move that is not recognised internationally, as its “eternal and indivisible capital.”

Most countries say the status of Jerusalem – a sacred city to Jews, Muslims and Christians – should be determined in a final peace settlement and that moving their embassies now would prejudge any such deal.

(Reuters)

Trump to Press Xi Jinping on North Korea, Trade on Beijing Visit

Isolating North Korea further over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests is a key goal for Trump on what will be his longest foreign trip to date.

US President Donald Trump (L) and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands while walking at Mar-a-Lago estate after a bilateral meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, US., April 7, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Washington: US President Donald Trump will urge President Xi Jinping to make good on his commitments to pressure North Korea when he visits China next month, a senior White House official said on Monday, stepping up a strategy to have Beijing help rein in Pyongyang.

Isolating North Korea further over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests is a key goal for Trump on what will be his longest foreign trip to date.

Trump will call on Xi to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang and take other steps to pressure North Korea.

China, North Korea’s sole major ally, accounts for more than 90% of trade with the isolated country.

China has said it will strictly enforce UN Security Council sanctions banning imports of coal, textiles and seafood, while cutting off oil shipments to the North.

But a senior White House official who briefed reporters ahead of Trump’s trip said China needs to do more to comply with two UN Security Council resolutions that were approved unanimously, including with China’s support.

“We would like to see China follow through on those commitments. We would like to see China do things bilaterally as well that might even go beyond things that are mandated by those UN Security Council resolutions,” the official said.

Though China has been angered by North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and demanded they stop, Beijing also sees the US and South Korea sharing responsibility for rising tensions because of military drills they carry out in the region.

South Korea, the US and Japan started a two-day missile tracking drill on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said in a statement, in preparation for any missile or nuclear threats from North Korea.

The exercises will be held in waters off the coasts of South Korea and Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, with four Aegis combat system-equipped ships from all three countries participating in the drill.

“Critical” threat

China’s special envoy for the North Korea nuclear issue, Kong Xuanyou, met his US counterpart, Joseph Yun, in Beijing on Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said, where they had a “deep exchange of views on the Korean peninsula issue”. The ministry did not elaborate.

Trump, who has threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, has frequently asked China to help rein in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

But this strategy has so far failed to stop Pyongyang conducting nuclear bomb tests at an underground facility and firing ballistic missile tests into the Pacific Ocean over Japan.

The threat from North Korea has grown to a “critical and imminent level” and the US, Japan and South Korea must address the matter, Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told his US and South Korean counterparts in talks on Monday.

Onodera’s remarks underscored the deep concern in Tokyo about North Korean weapons tests as Pyongyang seeks to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US.

The White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump is looking for a peaceful resolution of the North Korea standoff.

Asked by reporters whether an offer by former President Jimmy Carter to serve as a US envoy to North Korea would be accepted, the official said: “There’s nothing planned.”

No quick solution

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday he outlined for Trump his country’s efforts to pressure North Korea over its nuclear program but also advised the US leader to use talks to help resolve the conflict.

“There is no quick and easy solution. Pressure is necessary but so is dialogue. The US will need to work with others, including China, South Korea and Japan and Russia to resolve the issue,” he said.

With Xi consolidating power in the wake of a Communist Party Congress in Beijing, Trump believes the Chinese president will have a greater authority to take steps against North Korea, senior administration officials said last week.

Trump’s November 3-14 trip will include visits to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Trump will also be tough on trade during talks with Xi as he seeks to reduce the US trade deficit with China, the White House official said.

“We have huge barriers that Americans companies have to surmount to gain access to the Chinese market. The president is intent on rectifying that situation,” the official said.

Despite Trump’s fierce criticism of China’s trade practices during the presidential campaign, he has mostly held off on any major trade action while his administration works with Beijing on North Korea.

China has insisted it is doing all it can, and some Chinese diplomats say the Trump administration has overestimated how much influence Beijing has over its defiant neighbor.

Even as China has shown signs of tightening enforcement of sanctions on North Korea, it has stopped short of agreeing to US demands for a fuel embargo and has urged the US to negotiate with Pyongyang.

(Reuters)