KHARTOUM: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Monday that Cairo was supporting efforts to remove Sudan from Washington’s blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, a key factor hindering the African country’s economic revival.
Shoukry is in Khartoum for a one-day visit to hold talks with top officials in what Cairo hailed as a “new start” in relations between the neighbors as Sudan transitions toward civilian rule.
Egypt had been a steadfast ally of Sudanese military generals who seized power after the army ousted long-time leader Omar Al-Bashir in April following months of nationwide protests against his autocratic rule.
But previously ties between the neighbors had often been strained over the years due to trade and border disputes, although efforts have been taken by both to address the concerns.
On Monday, Shoukry held talks with new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Sudan’s first female foreign affairs minister, Asma Mohamed Abdalla.
He also met General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of a joint civilian-military sovereign council that is overseeing Sudan’s transition.
Shoukry said that during his talks, which aimed to “boost relations between the two countries,” he offered Cairo’s backing for dropping Sudan from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“Egypt is supporting Sudan to be removed from the terrorism list,” he told reporters.
“We have also raised this issue with the United States of America ... we will continue pushing for it in coordination with the Sudanese authorities.”
Decades of US blacklisting along with a trade embargo imposed on Sudan in 1997 has kept overseas investors away from the country, in turn isolating it from the global economy.
Sudan’s worsening economic situation was the key trigger for nationwide protests that finally led to the ouster of Bashir.
Washington lifted the sanctions in October 2017, but still kept Sudan in the terrorism list along with North Korea, Iran and Syria.
Washington’s harsh measures were imposed for Khartoum’s alleged support for extremist militant groups.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden used to reside in Sudan between 1992 to 1996.
Washington and Khartoum have, however, engaged in negotiations to remove Sudan from the terrorism blacklist since the sanctions were lifted.
The Egyptian foreign ministry earlier said that Shoukry’s visit “shows Egypt’s support for Sudan and to its people in achieving their demands.”
Relations between Cairo and Khartoum had deteriorated in early 2017, when Bashir accused Egypt of supporting rebels in conflict zones, including Darfur in western Sudan.
Sudan in May 2017 banned the import of animal and other agricultural products from its northern neighbor.
But for years the main bone of contention between the two countries has been Egypt’s control of the Halayeb triangle, which lies in a mineral-rich border region.
During Bashir’s rule, Sudan regularly protested at Egypt’s administration of Halayeb and the Shalatin border region near the Red Sea, saying they are part of its sovereign territory since shortly after independence in 1956.
Ties between the neighbors improved after Sudan lifted the ban on Egyptian products in 2018 following talks in Khartoum between Bashir and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
El-Sisi and other Egyptian officials had regularly called for stability in Sudan after protests erupted against Bashir in December.
Egypt pushes for end to US ‘terror’ blacklisting of Sudan
Egypt pushes for end to US ‘terror’ blacklisting of Sudan
- Egypt wants more support for neighboring Sudan’s new civilian government
- The US named Sudan a state sponsor of terror in 1993
Palestinian citizens in Israel demand more security from violence
- Protests and strikes are sweeping Israel over record levels of violence targeting the country’s Palestinian citizens
- At least 26 people were killed in January alone, adding to a record-breaking toll of more than 250 last year
KAFR YASIF, Israel: Nabil Safiya had taken a break from studying for a biology exam to meet a cousin at a pizza parlor when a gunman on a motorcycle rode past and fired, killing the 15-year-old as he sat in a black Renault.
The shooting — which police later said was a case of mistaken identity — stunned his hometown of Kafr Yasif, long besieged, like many Palestinian towns in Israel, by a wave of gang violence and family feuds.
“There is no set time for the gunfire anymore,” said Nabil’s father, Ashraf Safiya. “They can kill you in school, they can kill you in the street, they can kill you in the football stadium.”
The violence plaguing Israel’s Arab minority has become an inescapable part of daily life. Activists have long accused authorities of failing to address the issue and say that sense has deepened under Israel’s current far-right government.
One out of every five citizens in Israel is Palestinian. The rate of crime-related killings among them is more than 22 times higher than that for Jewish Israelis, while arrest and indictment rates for those crimes are far lower. Critics cite the disparities as evidence of entrenched discrimination and neglect.
A growing number of demonstrations are sweeping Israel. Thousands marched in Tel Aviv late Saturday to demand action, while Arab communities have gone on strike, closing shops and schools.
In November, after Nabil was gunned down, residents marched through the streets, students boycotted their classes and the Safiya family turned their home into a shrine with pictures and posters of Nabil.
The outrage had as much to do with what happened as with how often it keeps happening.
“There’s a law for the Jewish society and a different law for Palestinian society,” Ghassan Munayyer, a political activist from Lod, a mixed city with a large Palestinian population, said at a recent protest.
An epidemic of violence
Some Palestinian citizens have reached the highest echelons of business and politics in Israel. Yet many feel forsaken by authorities, with their communities marked by underinvestment and high unemployment that fuels frustration and distrust toward the state.
Nabil was one of a record 252 Palestinian citizens to be killed in Israel last year, according to data from Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that promotes coexistence and safer communities. The toll continues to climb, with at least 26 additional crime-related killings in January.
Walid Haddad, a criminologist who teaches at Ono Academic College and who previously worked in Israel’s national security ministry, said that organized crime thrives off weapons trafficking and loan‑sharking in places where people lack access to credit. Gangs also extort residents and business owners for “protection,” he said.
Based on interviews with gang members in prisons and courts, he said they can earn anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether the job is torching cars, shooting at buildings or assassinating rival leaders.
“If they fire at homes or people once or twice a month, they can buy cars, go on trips. It’s easy money,” Haddad said, noting a widespread sense of impunity.
The violence has stifled the rhythm of life in many Palestinian communities. In Kafr Yasif, a northern Israel town of 10,000, streets empty by nightfall, and it’s not uncommon for those trying to sleep to hear gunshots ringing through their neighborhoods.
Prosecutions lag
Last year, only 8 percent of killings of Palestinian citizens led to charges filed against suspects, compared with 55 percent in Jewish communities, according to Abraham Initiatives.
Lama Yassin, the Abraham Initiatives’ director of shared cities and regions, said strained relations with police long discouraged Palestinian citizens from calling for new police stations or more police officers in their communities.
Not anymore.
“In recent years, because people are so depressed and feel like they’re not able to practice day-to-day life ... Arabs are saying, ‘Do whatever it takes, even if it means more police in our towns,’” Yassin said.
The killings have become a rallying cry for Palestinian-led political parties after successive governments pledged to curb the bloodshed with little results. Politicians and activists see the spate of violence as a reflection of selective enforcement and police apathy.
“We’ve been talking about this for 10 years,” said Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman.
She labeled policing in Palestinian communities “collective punishment,” noting that when Jews are victims of violence, police often set up roadblocks in neighboring Palestinian towns, flood areas with officers and arrest suspects en masse.
“The only side that can be able to smash a mafia is the state and the state is doing nothing except letting (organized crime) understand that they are free to do whatever they want,” Touma-Suleiman said.
Many communities feel impunity has gotten worse, she added, under National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who with authority over the police has launched aggressive and visible campaigns against other crimes, targeting protests and pushing for tougher operations in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli police reject allegations of skewed priorities, saying that killings in these communities are a top priority. Police also have said investigations are challenging because witnesses don’t always cooperate.
“Investigative decisions are guided by evidence, operational considerations, and due process, not by indifference or lack of prioritization,” police said in a statement.
Unanswered demands
In Kafr Yasif, Ashraf Safiya vowed his son wouldn’t become just another statistic.
He had just gotten home from his work as a dentist and off the phone with Nabil when he learned about the shooting. He raced to the scene to find the car window shattered as Nabil was being rushed to the hospital. Doctors there pronounced him dead.
“The idea was that the blood of this boy would not be wasted,” Safiya said of protests he helped organize. “If people stop caring about these cases, we’re going to just have another case and another case.”
Authorities said last month they were preparing to file an indictment against a 23-year-old arrested in a neighboring town in connection with the shooting. They said the intended target was a relative, referring to the cousin with Nabil that night.
And they described Nabil as a victim of what they called “blood feuds within Arab society.”
At a late January demonstration in Kafr Yasif, marchers carried portraits of Nabil and Nidal Mosaedah, another local boy killed in the violence. Police broke up the protest, saying it lasted longer than authorized, and arrested its leaders, including the former head of the town council.
The show of force, residents said, may have quashed one protest, but did nothing to halt the killings.
