Sudan formally signs Abraham Accords
AT CEREMONY in Khartoum on Wednesday, Sudan officially signed on to Abraham Accords.
It became the third of four countries to agree to normalise ties with Israel, following the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and preceding Morocco, which has yet to formally sign the accords.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords with Israel at the White House on 15 September. The two Gulf states were the first to normalise relations.
Sudan signed the agreement in a ceremony on Wednesday in its capital of Khartoum. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who represented the United States at the event, will be in Israel on Wednesday for meetings, he tweeted.
Sudan, which overthrew dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, announced its agreement in October to join the normalisation accord as long as it was removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. A stipulation on the US side meant that Sudan agreed to pay $335 million in compensation to American victims of terrorism.
Last month, legislation protecting victims of terrorism and restoring Sudan’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits was included in the mustpass omnibus government spending bill, which also included coronavirus relief, that US President Donald Trump signed into law.
Sudan, an Arab-Muslim-majority country that borders Egypt to the south, has long been viewed as a hostile nation towards the Jewish state.
Its rejection of Israel was made famous with the 1967 Khartoum Resolution, issued at the conclusion of the Arab League summit in the wake of the Six-Day War and declaring the “Three Nos”: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations.
However, the current government, focused on reforming the economy and expanding international investment, has sought friendlier ties with Israel as a step in improving relations with the United States.
Sudan’s western neighbor, Chad, established ties with Israel in 2019, and South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, also has diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.