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KHARTOUM: The first US ambassador to Sudan in 25 years took up his post Wednesday in the latest easing of ties since Washington removed Khartoum from it state sponsors of terrorism list.
Ties between the United States and Sudan were severely strained under the three-decade rule of ousted president Omar Al-Bashir, with Washington slapping crippling economic sanctions on Khartoum.
In 1993, the US blacklisted Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism as Bashir’s regime hosted Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who resided in the country between 1992-1996.
“Ambassador John Godfrey arrived today in Khartoum, the first US Ambassador to Sudan in nearly 25 years,” the US embassy said in a statement.
The ambassador’s arrival comes as Sudan reels from deepening unrest and a spiralling economy since last year’s military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
The military power grab, Sudan’s latest, upended a fragile transition installed following the 2019 toppling of Bashir.
“Godfrey will work to strengthen relations between the American and Sudanese people and to support their aspirations to freedom, peace, justice, and a transition to democracy,” it added.
“He also looks forward to advancing priorities related to peace and security, economic development, and food security.”
Relations with Washington eased under Sudan’s now-ousted transitional government led by former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who took office following Bashir’s 2019 ouster on the back of mass protests against his rule.
In December 2019, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would appoint an ambassador to Khartoum.
In May 2020, Sudan named an ambassador to the US. Later that year, Washington removed Khartoum from its blacklist.
GAZA CITY: The hours before iftar have seen a noticeable increase in Gazans walking along the Corniche of Gaza City.
Men, women, teens and some children walk in groups and individually before the call to Maghrib prayer, some of them on a daily basis, to spend Ramadan in a useful and healthy way.
“I have been practicing walking for years, almost daily, on normal days in the early morning hours, but in Ramadan two hours before iftar,” Midhat Jabali, 44, told Arab News.
“Walking is a sport for body health and heart. I practice it individually and sometimes with my wife and children. During Ramadan, I make sure to be here every day on the Corniche to walk for at least an hour before returning home to eat the meal,” Jabali said.
Jabali notes a significant increase in the number of Gazans of all ages practicing walking and jogging during Ramadan on Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City.
Sana’a Luzon, 48, a housewife, said that she goes out walking daily to the Corniche of the Gaza Sea, accompanied by her husband.
Luzon began the habit a couple of years ago after the outbreak of COVID-19 and continued to practice it after that.
“Staying at home is a cause of great distress for people, and has doubled our pressures in life. Our walking exercise relieves us a little,” she told Arab News.
Muhammad Abu Diab started walking many months ago because it helps him to overcome the daily pressure he is exposed to.
He lives in a neighborhood that is far from the seaside but he is keen not to leave this beautiful habit on the seashore.
Abu Diab bought a bike a few weeks ago to help him reach the seaside more quickly.
The habit of walking in Ramadan has become an opportunity for many fasting people to spend a healthy time in an open place where they practice sports, helping them to overcome health problems and daily pressures, and spend time until the moment of breaking the fast.
“The doctors advised me to practice walking, but I did not have time in the morning hours for this sport. I took advantage of the month of Ramadan to practice daily. Often we prepare our food and sit near the beach after walking and eat it here,” Rami Saidi, 55, told Arab News.
“I feel happy when I walk, and I also feel happy when I see others of all ages walking on the Corniche of Gaza. I feel that there is life and there is hope for a better and healthy future in light of the conditions we live in in Gaza,” he said.
Mahmoud Sheikh Ali, a nutritionist, told Arab News that walking has many health benefits for all — men, women and children.
Sheikh Ali added that this sport helps to activate all organs of the body, especially the respiratory system, and reduces the risk of disease and promotes bone health.
Ghada Al-Sousi, 23, said that she took up walking during Ramadan after her friends urged her to participate with them.
“Since last year, I have been coming on foot to the Corniche with my friends twice a week after the Asr prayer in order to walk and then return home, which helps us to overcome the stresses of the day as well as revitalize the body’s organs and lose some unnecessary fat in the body,” she told Arab News.
Psychologist Fadel Abu Hein said that exercising during Ramadan contributes to solving many problems, and it is a good habit that provides a person with positive energy.
“Walking, seeing landscapes, and breathing fresh air resist aging and viruses, because it enhances human immunity,” Abu Hein said.
IRBIL: Iraq on Tuesday shut down a camp housing internally displaced Iraqis with alleged ties to the Daesh group, the migration and displacement ministry announced.
The statement said the camp’s closure came as part of a government program aiming to “end the displacement file” in the country, where 1.2 million Iraqis remain internally displaced after years of conflict.
Aid workers criticized the closure as hasty and chaotic.
On Monday, residents and aid workers at the Jadah 5 camp in northern Iraq’s Qayyarah — which housed some 300 families — were informed by government and security officials that they had to leave the camp by Wednesday, a day before the beginning of the Muslim celebration of Eid Al-Fitr.
Iraq has long sought to close down the displacement camp, one of the last remaining in federally controlled areas, but faced pushback from aid groups concerned over the integration of vulnerable families, including many women and children, stigmatized for their perceived or real affiliation with IS.
Aid workers Tuesday said they had been locked out of the camp by security forces and residents were being evicted after being given two days’ notice to leave. An Associated Press correspondent who attempted to reach the camp found it surrounded by a heavy security deployment and was not allowed to access the premises.
Several official notices of closure had been sent to the camp over the past year and a half but were later delayed. This time, however, the closure came sooner than expected.
On March 23, Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement sent a letter to the International Organization for Migration, which coordinates humanitarian aid in the camp, informing it that the camp would be shut down in 60 days. The letter did not cite a reason for the closure.
A spokesperson for the IOM said the organization is aware that residents have received notice that the camp will be closed but declined to comment further.
“They all must leave — they don’t have another option,” said Ali Abbas, a spokesperson for the ministry. He said each family had been given 1,500,000 Iraqi dinar (about $1030) to find new housing.
Abbas did not give a reason for the closure decision, and it was not clear why the ministry had moved up the May deadline cited in the letter.
The ministry statement, reported by state media, said that “all the displaced have returned to their original areas of residence on a voluntary basis.”
The order to vacate the camp on Monday, “was sudden, with no notice,” said a worker with an aid organization operating in the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear that the government would retaliate against the non-governmental organization. “So (residents) were confused about how to leave the camp.”
Another aid worker, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the residents were told that if they did not leave, “the army will enter and kick out all those who remain,” adding that ministry employees and security forces “started to confiscate the (identification) documents of the people to make sure that they leave.”
UN and NGO workers on Tuesday were prevented from entering the premises by security forces, the aid workers said, and as of the afternoon all but around 15 to 20 families had left the camp.
Camp residents often fear violence from militias and tribes if they return to their areas of origin.
Authorities began a rapid push in late 2020 to close down displacement camps across the country in an effort to push forward with recovery efforts that have lagged years after the defeat of IS. Most camps were shut, aside from those in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and one where returnees from the Al-Hol camp in Syria are housed.
International organizations have cited pervasive violence, exploitation and lawlessness in the Al-Hol camp and called for countries with citizens housed there to repatriate them.
ANKARA: US President Joe Biden’s administration was expected to give the green light for the long-awaited sale of defense modernization kits to Turkiye ahead of key Turkish elections on May 14.
The package, which Turkiye had requested in October 2021 for its existing F-16 aircraft fleet, will include radars and avionics software upgrades, Reuters reported.
The process had remained in limbo as a result of several breakdowns in relations between Washington and Ankara.
America’s move is believed to be related to Turkiye’s recent approval of Finland’s NATO membership bid and ongoing de-escalation of tensions with its neighbor Greece.
However, a planned $20 billion sale of new Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters to Turkiye will not be included in the package. That deal has yet to be approved by the US Congress.
The US State Department was now expected to send formal notification to Congress for the sale of $259 million worth of modernization kits after congressional committee leaders recently gave informal approval for the sale.
Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Arab News: “(The US move) tells the Turkish government that if it wins the elections in a fair way, more may come in at the following stage.
“It also tells the opposition that if it wins, it should favor a reset in Turkish-US relations and develop strong ties with Washington by setting the S-400 (Russian missile system) issue.
“Therefore, the US signals that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what it can do together with the opposition if it wins. So, this is a sort of carrot simultaneously,” Cagaptay added.
If Congress gives formal approval to the process, the modernization package will be the first major military deal with Turkiye that it has agreed in years, with Lockheed Martin Corp. being the main contractor.
Cagaptay noted that the US government wanted continuity in its defense ties with Turkiye. The upgrade of the F-16 fleet would boost interoperability between Turkish and NATO military systems through the adoption of updated communications technology and new safety measures such as a ground collision avoidance system.
But experts have pointed out that Congress will first want to see Ankara approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO and give assurances over its close military and political ties with Russia.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the US Congress would have 15 days to adopt a joint resolution of disapproval against the sale.
“However, this is unlikely as the transaction is relatively small compared to Turkiye’s request of 40 F-16s in addition to these modernization kits and more significantly to the F35s Greece is on its way to acquiring by 2028,” he added.
Unluhisarcikli noted that Turkiye’s upgrading of its airforce would be in the interests of the US and NATO given Ankara’s role in the military alliance’s southern flank.
On the timing of the decision one month before important elections in Turkiye, he said: “If the opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu wins the upcoming elections and becomes Turkiye’s 13th president, one can expect the Turkiye-US relationship to be set on a more positive trajectory which means the F-16 deal would be easier to achieve.
“However, even if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan retains his office, the relationship can at least normalize and it would still be possible to proceed with the F-16 sale, particularly after Turkiye ratifies Sweden’s NATO accession.”
However, tensions still remain in relations between America and Turkiye.
Erdogan recently criticized US Ambassador to Turkiye Jeff Flake for meeting the country’s opposition leader and candidate for the presidential elections, Kilicdaroglu, ahead of elections, and said that doors were now closed on the envoy.
“Shame on you, use your head. You are an ambassador. Your interlocutor here is the president. We have to teach America a lesson,” Erdogan added.
LONDON: A diamond and art dealer was sanctioned Tuesday by the UK and US governments for allegedly funding Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The UK Treasury said it froze Nazem Ahmad’s assets in the UK because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group. Under the sanctions, no one in the UK or US will be able to do business with Ahmad or his businesses.
“The firm action we have taken today will clamp down on those who are funding international terrorism,” said Joanna Penn, UK treasury minister. She said the move would strengthen the UK’s economic and national security.
Ahmad was similarly sanctioned in 2019 by the US Treasury, which alleged he was a “prominent Lebanon-based money launderer and significant Hezbollah financier.” It also said he was involved in smuggling “blood diamonds,” which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
The US Treasury Department on Tuesday afternoon sanctioned a network of 52 individuals and entities from Lebanon to South Africa to the United Kingdom to Hong Kong for their associations with Ahmad.
The sanctioned group is accused of running an international money laundering and sanctions evasion operation, facilitating the payment and delivery of jewelry, art and luxury goods for the benefit of Ahmad, according to Treasury.
Included in the sanctions announcement are Ahmad’s children, wife, extended family members, business associates, real estate firms and several diamond companies based in South Africa, Belgium and Dubai, which acted as brokers for jewelry and art sales.
US Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said individuals involved in the luxury goods trade “should be attentive to these potential tactics and schemes, which allow terrorist financiers, money launderers, and sanctions evaders to launder illicit proceeds through the purchase and consignment of luxury goods.”
Rewards for Justice — the US State Department’s national security rewards program — is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information related to Ahmad.
A Beirut art gallery the UK government identified as belonging to Ahmad did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied met Tuesday with Syria’s chief diplomat and said his country wants to boost bilateral cooperation and preserve “historical ties of brotherhood” with Damascus, the official TAP news agency reported.
Diplomatic relations between Syria and Tunisia have been cut since 2012 during the civil war that followed President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on mass protests against his rule. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad’s three-day visit to Tunisia is meant to help restore relations, the Tunisian Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Mikdad had a meeting Monday evening with his Tunisian counterpart Nabil Ammar shortly after his arrival.
President Saied stressed Tunisia’s willingness to intensify cooperation in a range of bilateral issues, and on the common cultural bonds, TAP reported.
The bid by the two countries to move toward a new chapter is a glaring example of how things have changed in the region over the past decade: Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy movements that spread as far as Syria in 2011, and was long among Assad’s strongest critics. But today, Tunisia’s leadership is swinging back toward authoritarianism, and is allying anew with Assad’s Syria.
Earlier this month, the Tunisian president ordered the appointment of an ambassador to Damascus, after the Syrian government’s decision to reopen its embassy in Tunis and appoint an ambassador.
In February, Saied had announced his decision to raise the level of Tunisian diplomatic representation in Damascus, and said that the crisis facing Assad’s government was “an internal matter that concerns only the Syrian people.” The move was made at the same time Tunisia was sending urgent humanitarian aid to Syria following the earthquake that killed tens of thousands there and in neighboring Turkiye.
Mikdad’s visit to Tunisia is the second leg of a trip that began in Algeria, one of the few Arab countries that maintained diplomatic relations during Syria’s civil war.
It comes as influential Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi was detained after a police search, in a move denounced by his supporters as a stepped-up effort by the president to quash Tunisia’s opposition. Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahdha party, is the most prominent critic of Saied.
Last week, Mikdad also traveled to Saudi Arabia.
Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over Assad’s 2011 crackdown on protesters, and Syria was ousted from the Arab League.
However, in recent years, as Assad consolidated control over most of the country, Syria’s neighbors have begun to take steps toward rapprochement.