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WORLD NEWS Thursday 6 February 2020

Sudan official: Talks with Israel

about international status

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's mili-
tary said Wednesday the
motive for agreeing to an
initiative to normalize rela-
tions with Israel after de-
cades of enmity was to
help end the country's sta-
In this Jan. 29, 2019 file photo, Hayo, chief of the Pataxo Ha-ha- tus as an international pa-
hae indigenous community, walks toward the Paraopeba River riah state.
days after the collapse of a mining company dam, near his vil-
lage in Brumadinho, Brazil. The spokesman for Sudan's
Associated Press armed forces, Brig. Amer
Mohammed al-Hassan,
Former missionary to said in a news conference
that a meeting between

lead Brazil's isolated the head of Sudan's sov- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens to Russian
ereign council and Israel's
prime minister in Uganda
indigenous unit on Monday was part of ef- President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in the Kremlin in
Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020.
forts to end Sudan's long-
Associated Press
time status as a state sup-
SAO PAULO (AP) — Bra- in 1997-2007 as a member porter of terror. of the U.S. criticism from civil society
zil's far-right administration of the New Tribes nonprofit The goal of the talks be- Netanyahu declared Mon- leaders for the sudden
named a former evangeli- group. Currently called Eth- tween Benjamin Netanya- day on Twitter that Israel warming in relations with
cal missionary Wednesday nos360, the Florida-based hu and Gen. Abdel-Fattah and Sudan were working Israel. Sudan, a Muslim-
to head a department re- group sends missionar- Burhan, he said, was to toward normalizing rela- majority African country,
sponsible for protecting ies from local churches help secure Sudan's remov- tions. For Israel, it would be has long said it supports the
uncontacted and recently around the world, many to al from the United States' list a major diplomatic break- Palestinian people in their
contacted indigenous indigenous territory. of states that sponsor terror. through. calls for an independent
groups, raising concerns Dias' nomination comes a The designation dates back Burhan was quoted by al- state.
among human rights ac- week after Funai's chair- to the 1990s, when Sudan Hassan as saying during a Burhan, Sudan's interim
tivists about the threat to man changed internal briefly hosted Osama bin meeting with newspaper leader, said in a separate
tribes' health and culture. rules so people who don't Laden and other wanted editors Wednesday that statement Tuesday that
The Justice Ministry said pass civil service exams militants. The U.S. and Israel Sudan is under economic Sudan backs the Palestin-
Ricardo Lopes Dias is the can be eligible for the posi- are staunch allies. pressure and the country ian people's aspirations
new coordinator-general tion to which Dias has been Sudan was also believed to needs "bold decisions that to have an independent
for the government unit, appointed. Brazil officially have served as a pipeline shift Sudan's domestic and state.
which is part of the indige- counts 28 groups of iso- for Iran to supply weapons foreign policy." Sudan is a member of the
nous affairs agency known lated indigenous peoples to Palestinian militants in Sudan is led by a military- Arab League and joined
as Funai. in the Amazon. President the Gaza Strip. Israel was civilian transitional council other members at a meet-
In recent interviews with Jair Bolsonaro has said that thought to have been be- established following au- ing in Cairo on Saturday
Brazilian media, Dias said indigenous groups should hind airstrikes in Sudan that tocratic president Omar in rejecting Trump's plan
he would not seek to evan- be integrated into Brazil- destroyed a convoy in 2009 al-Bashir's ouster in a popu- for settling the Israeli-Pal-
gelize indigenous groups. ian society and that their and a weapons factory in lar uprising that ended his estinian conflict. The plan,
He told the newspaper O protected lands can pose 2012. 30-year rule last April. Its laid out by Trump late last
Globo before his nomina- a threat to development Monday's meeting came interim civilian leaders had week, heavily favors Israel.
tion was made official that and national sovereignty. just a day after U.S. Secre- said the meeting with Ne- Burhan also was quoted
his actions would be purely A former Funai president, tary of State Mike Pompeo tanyahu caught them by as saying that there had
technical, defended his Marcio Santilli, told The As- invited Burhan to visit the surprise. been "preparatory talks"
knowledge of indigenous sociated Press that the ap- United States in a phone Al-Hassan said that in the about the meeting as early
groups and insisted there is pointment of Dias was a call. The date of the visit Monday meeting, the two as three months ago, and
prejudice against him be- matter of global concern. has not yet been set. leaders did not discuss U.S. that the country's top civil-
cause of his faith. "The risks of contact are of A senior Sudanese military President Donald's Trump ian leader, Prime Minister
Activists say that hasn't al- contamination by disease, official said Monday the controversial plan for Israel Abdalla Hamdok, was in-
layed their concerns, given as often happened in the Sudan-Israel meeting was and the Palestinians, un- formed two days prior that
Dias work in the Amazon past," Santilli said.q orchestrated by the United veiled last week. the meeting would be tak-
Arab Emirates, a close ally The government has faced ing place.q