Sadiq Al-Mahdi: Lifting sanctions on Sudan with Israel’s help is a big illusion

Leader of the Sudanese National Umma Party, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, renewed his party’s rejection of any kind of normalisation with Israel, stressing that the ideas that Tel Aviv can help lift US sanctions on Khartoum is a “big illusion”.

Al-Mahdi said in a press conference held at his party’s headquarters in the city of Omdurman: “We reject normalisation with Israel, as it is harmful to Arab, Muslim and Palestinian interests,” reported Sudanese website Ahdath Al-Yom.

He added: “Saying that Israel will help us lift the US sanctions is a big illusion,” in reference to the justification for Chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda on Monday.

Al-Mahdi explained that “the US Congress is the only competent party concerned with removing Sudan from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, and not the US administration or Israel.”

“The transitional political situation in Sudan does not allow individual initiatives,” explaining that he considered “the meeting in Kampala was intended to cause unrest in Sudan.”

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Al-Mahdi also criticised the inclusion of the armed forces in the “normalisation equation with Israel,” and described it as a “wrong path to take”.

He asserted: “We must close the door to establishing any form of normalisation with Israel for good. Dealing with Israel must be based on restoring the usurped rights of the entitled owners of the Palestinian lands.”