Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/KHARTOUM: Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has condemned Sudan for agreeing to move ahead to normalise relations with Israel, breaking with decades of support for Palestinian groups.
According to the AFP, during the visit to Khartoum by the Israeli foreign minister, the two states agreed to move forward with the normalisation process agreed in January 2021.
Hamas condemned move
Hamas condemned the move that “contradicts the general Sudanese stance against the normalisation of relations with Israeli occupation state and supports the Palestinian cause”.
In a statement, it calls “on the Sudanese leaderships to backtrack on this decision that the contradicts interests of the brotherly people of Sudan and could only serve the Israeli occupation’s agenda.”
During the three-decade rule of general Omar al-Bashir, Sudan remained of the staunchest backer of Hamas and other militant groups, but after his ouster in April 2019, his policies have been shunned.
A spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group, described the move as “a disgrace for the Arab country of the stature of Sudan”.
In 2020, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Morocco normalised their relations with Israel, breaking the longstanding Arab League policies that there should be no normalization without a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
In January 2021, Sudan agreed to normalise ties with Israel in exchange for the US eliminating it from its lists of “state sponsors of terrorism”, but relations were never formalised.
