Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok of Sudan in Khartoum last month.Credit…Office of Sudan’s Prime Minister, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sudan has joined a list of other Middle Eastern countries to sign a peace deal with Israel. This was accomplished through the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which has already seen the signing on of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The signing took place at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, Sudan last week. The countries already came to an informal agreement back in October, but it was not finalized until last week due to a transitional parliament in Sudan.
Signing on behalf of the United States was Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. And for Sudan, Sudanese Minister of Justice Nasereldin Abdelbari signed on behalf of the country. The signing comes after the U.S. removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and the United States also promised Sudan a 1-billion-dollar loan.
In October, President Trump said of the country: “They are choosing a future in which Arabs and Israelis, Muslims, Jews, and Christians can live together, pray together, and dream together, side by side, in harmony, community, and peace.”
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council and also the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated of Sudan, “It is heartening to see a spirit of cautious optimism infuse so many of our conversations with government, religious, and civil society representatives in Sudan. We are grateful to Prime Minister Hamdok and other members of the country’s bold transitional leadership who met with USCIRF to convey their explicit desire to bring a new era of openness and inclusivity to their country that suffered for 30 years under brutal and autocratic religious repression.”
The Abraham Accords is a written agreement calling for peace in the Middle East as well as “respect for human dignity and freedom, including religious freedom.” Additionally, the Accords seek an end to radicalization and conflict “to provide all children a better future.”
