Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Sudan and Israel to Normalize Relations)

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Sudan and Israel to Normalize Relations

Sudan has become the third Arab country (Two are Bahrain and United Arab Emirates (UAE)) in the past two months to normalize ties with Israel, continuing the trend of Arab states’ willingness to advance ties with the Jewish state, even without a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Sudan become the fifth Arab country to normalize relations with Israel. It is known that Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain have previously reached a peace agreement with Israel.
The expansion of the Abraham Accords to include Sudan relations with Israel is a significant step that will further enhance Israel’s security and create opportunities for the Arab nation and Israel to deepen their economic ties and improve the lives of their people.
Less than three months President Donald J. Trump has brokered a peace agreement between Arab-Muslim nation and Israel. Sudan have confirmed will normalize relations with Israel, ending decades of fierce hostility, through mediation by the United States (US).
The normalization plan was announced after talks between the Prime Minister (PM) of Sudan, Abdalla Hamdok, with US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu on October 23, 2020.

Since 1948, when the Arab nation start the war that birthed Israel, Israel’s relationship with Sudan has been difficult. Sudan had been a foe of Israel since the latter's founding in 1948.
Famously, it was the site of a declaration against normalisation with Israel in 1967, when the Arab League, meeting in the capital, Khartoum, swore "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it".
Moreover, when Omar al-Bashir’s regime was hosting Osama bin Laden in Khartoum, The US put Sudan as one of the lists of state sponsors in 1993.
In 2009, Sudan’s ties with Iran were seen by Israel as a means for Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, to receive arms from Iranian militias.
In 2012, Israel was blamed by Sudan for bombing a weapons factory in Yarmouk.

The political dynamics changed with the overthrow last year of Sudan's long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir and his replacement by a transitional civilian-military council.
Sudan's generals, who wield the real power, have supported establishing relations with Israel as a way to help get US sanctions on Sudan lifted and open the door to badly needed economic aid.
Like the UAE and Bahrain, Sudan has not been in a war with Israel and has over the years enjoyed a degree of secret ties with Israel.
In 1984, the Sudanese authorities assisted in an airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in February, 2020, met openly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda.
There are also thousands of refugees from Sudan’s military conflicts living in Israel.
U.S. president has announced that 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 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Announcing the normalisation, Mr Trump said "at least five more" Arab states wanted a peace deal with Israel.