‘Stabbed in the back!’ Erekat fumes over Israel-Sudan talks

Erekat expressed his dismay over Netanyahu’s two-hour meeting with Sudan’s leader and their decision to move toward normalization.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, blasted the meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Sudanese leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on Monday.

“This meeting is a stab in the back of the Palestinian people… at a time when the administration of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are trying to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Erekat said, according to the Palestinian Authority’s official WAFA news agency.

Al-Burhan spoke with Netanyahu in Uganda in a meeting lasting about two hours on Monday. The two leaders agreed to work toward normalizing relations between their countries.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said he “believes that Sudan is headed in a new positive direction and he expressed his views to the Secretary of State of the United States of America.”

“The Chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, is eager to help his country modernize by taking it out of isolation and putting it on the world’s map,” the statement read.

The meeting marks a dramatic change in relations between the two countries. Sudan officially had been in a state of war with Israel. It declared war on Israel in 1948 and 1967.

Under the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, the east African country also supplied training camps to numerous terror groups, including Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the PLO and al-Qaeda before Osama bin Laden moved on to Afghanistan.

Al-Bashir, who ruled for nearly 30 years, was overthrown on April 11, 2019 by the Sudanese Armed Forces. U.S. sanctions had put increased pressure on his regime and contributed to his fall.

The removal of Al-Bashir was a blow to the Palestinian Authority, which counted him as a friend. In 2016, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he planned to work with al-Bashir to block Israel’s efforts to improve relations with African countries.