Sudan's Hamdok Reportedly Agrees to Normalize Relations with Israel

A Sudanese governmental source stated that Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok agreed to sign a peace agreement with Israel, changing his mind, after his previous steep objection over this move.

There have been reports during the past few days that negotiations between Sudan and Israel have gone a long way, and that the signing of the peace agreement between the two countries depends on Hamdok's approval.

The Sudanese source confirmed that Hamdok had expressed his agreement to peace with Israel, but "he still refuses to link the issue to the decision of removing his country's name from America's list of states sponsoring terrorism, given that the two files are different and should not be subject to bargain."

The source also said that the government of Sudan agreed to deposit the compensation for the victims of the American destroyer Cole and the bombing of the Washington embassies in Nairobi and Dar Al-Salaam, in a European bank, saying that it would not be disposed of until the Sovereign Immunities Act is issued by Congress to protect Khartoum from any future prosecutions of past terrorism cases.

Mean while, the popular Sudanese initiative for normalization with Israel said in a statement that they "will not be prisoners of the past and that there is no reason to prevent the normalization of relations with Israel," considering that "the origin between nations is coexistence and cooperation."

The Secretary-General of the initiative, Najmuddin Adam Abdullah, revealed that a random referendum had been conducted that resulted in 83% of the Sudanese surveyed agreeing to normalization with Israel. Moreover, several popular actors supporting normalization with Israel participated in the initiative's meeting.

In Washington, sources revealed that Sudan will sign a peace agreement with Israel within the next few days.

On the other hand, these sources revealed that Qatar had gone a long way in negotiations to normalize relations with Israel, noting that Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad decided to postpone the announcement of normalization until after the American elections.