Head of Sudan’s largest party slams recognizing Israel

Sudan’s former Prime Minister Siq al-Mahdi on Saturday slammed an anuncement by President Donald Trump that Sudan would start rmalizing ties with Israel.

Al-Mahdi, who is country's last democratically elected premier and hes country's largest political party, said he withdrew from a government-organized religious conference on Saturday in capital, Khartoum, in protest against Friday’s anuncement.

“This statement contricts Sudanese national law .. and contributes to elimination of peace project in Middle East and to preparing for ignition of a new war,” al-Mahdi said in a letter to conference.

He said agreement with Israel would jeopardize authority of Sudan's transitional government, a fragile coalition of civilian and military leers.

Sudan is on a thorny path to democracy after a popular uprising last year led military to overthrow longtime autocrat, Omar al-Bashir. transitional government has promised elections as soon as 2022.

Al-Mahdi, who hes National Umma Party, was overthrown in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup that brought al-Bashir to power. His party is allied with pro-democracy movement that led protests against al-Bashir.

Al-Mahdi accused Trump of being racist against Muslims and Black people, and described Israel as an “aparid state.”

Sudan has been third Arab state to move toward rmalizing its relations with Israel among a series of Washington-brokered deals in run-up to U.S. presidential elections. Trump ministration engineered diplomatic pacts between Israel and United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in August — first since Jordan recognized Israel in 1990s and Egypt in 1970s.

Sudan hosted a landmark Arab League conference after 1967 Mideast war where eight Arab countries approved “three ’s”: peace with Israel, recognition of Israel, and negotiations with Israel.

Sudan’s recognition of Israel comes after rth African nation agreed to put $335 million in an escrow account to be used to compensate American victims of terror attacks. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok thanked Trump for signing executive order to remove Sudan from terrorism list and said in a statement that he hoped to complete deal in a “timely manner.”

removal of terror designation opens door for Sudan’s transitional government to get international loans and aid needed to revive its battered ecomy and rescue country’s transition to democracy.

government has been struggling to revive Sudan’s battered ecomy amid a huge budget deficit and widespre shorts of essential goods, including fuel, bre and medicine.

Earlier this month, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy he of Sudanese sovereign council, told a local television station that Sudan would benefit from rmalization.

“We need Israel .. Israel is a developed country and whole world is working with it,” he said.