Israeli defense delegation heading to Sudan this week

A second, larger Israeli delegation is planned to depart in the coming weeks. The second delegation will focus on economic issues, including water and agriculture.

Sudanese protesters chant slogans as they gather ahead of a rally to put pressure on the government to improve conditions and push ahead with reform in Khartoum, Sudan October 21, 2020. (photo credit: REUTERS/ MOHAMED NURELDIN ABDALLAH)
Sudanese protesters chant slogans as they gather ahead of a rally to put pressure on the government to improve conditions and push ahead with reform in Khartoum, Sudan October 21, 2020.
(photo credit: REUTERS/ MOHAMED NURELDIN ABDALLAH)
An Israeli delegation will go to Khartoum in the coming days, following the announced move towards normalization between the countries, a cabinet source said on Sunday.
This week’s small delegation will focus on security cooperation between the two countries.
A second, larger Israeli delegation is planned to depart in the coming weeks. The second delegation will focus on economic issues, including water and agriculture.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser on the Arab world, a Shin Bet operative nicknamed “Maoz,” will lead this week’s defense-focused delegation. Maoz has been Netanyahu’s point person on Sudan, who flew to Khartoum the day before the announced normalization to work out the final details.
Sudan and Israel announced last month that they would be establishing diplomatic ties. The move came in conjunction with the US removing Sudan from its state sponsors of terror list, as Sudan has been in the process of transitioning to democracy since the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir last year.
The US is expected to provide Sudan with major economic aid and debt relief, and Khartoum will have access to loans and other aid now that they are no longer on that list.
The cabinet source also said he does not expect there to be any other normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states in the coming year, because they are waiting to see what US president-elect Joe Biden’s policies will be.
“The Saudis will now sit and wait and see what the American policy will be,” the source said. “They will ask for something big from the Americans to get peace with Israel. They don’t know what to ask for because they don’t know Biden’s policy.”


Justice Alito describes how curbs on individual liberty imposed during 2020 were “previously unimaginable.”

Arutz Sheva Staff , Nov 13 , 2020 12:45 PM
US Supreme Court

US Supreme Court

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“We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.

In a speech made to the Federalist Society via video link, the conservative-leaning justice said that the curbs on individual liberty imposed in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic were “previously unimaginable.”

Alito focused mainly on religious rights in his comments, stating how, “It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right. Churches closed on Easter Sunday, synagogues closed for Passover and Yom Kippur – think of it!”

Judge Alito also expressed his fear that freedom of speech itself was under attack, saying that, “Freedom is falling out of favor in some circles; we need to do whatever we can to prevent it from becoming a second-tier constitutional right. The COVID crisis has served as sort of a constitutional stress test,” he added.

Referring to changing social norms and pressure from liberal ideology, Alito described how citizens were no longer free to give voice to their opinions on a widening raft of issues.

“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman”, he said. “Until very recently that’s what a vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry.”


Atomic watchdog says Islamic Republic’s explanations are ‘not credible,’ demands answers on activity at Tehran warehouse dating back to early 2000s

 

Illustrative: Iran's alleged atomic warehouse in Turquzabad, Tehran. (YouTube screenshot)

Illustrative: Iran’s alleged atomic warehouse in Turquzabad, Tehran. (YouTube screenshot)

The UN’s nuclear watchdog said Wednesday that Iran’s explanations over the presence of nuclear material at an undeclared site in the country were “not credible.”

Despite Iranian authorities providing some information about the site, “the agency informed Iran that it continues to consider Iran’s response to be not technically credible,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report seen by AFP.

“A full and prompt explanation from Iran regarding the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin… at a location in Iran not declared to the Agency, is needed,” the report said.

While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources have indicated to AFP that it is in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, previously identified by Israel as an alleged site of secret atomic activity.

The report did not provide any new information about two other locations where the IAEA took samples in September and where undeclared nuclear activity may have taken place in the early 2000s.

The analysis of those samples is ongoing.

Iran initially refused to allow inspectors access to the sites, sparking a standoff with the IAEA only resolved in late August during a visit to Tehran by IAEA director Rafael Grossi.

Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2018, in New York City, and holds up a picture of what he said was a secret Iranian nuclear warehouse. (John Moore/Getty Images/AFP)

In a speech in 2018 at the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the existence of the warehouse in Tehran, which he said held “massive amounts” of equipment and material that were part of a secret Iranian nuclear program.

In that speech, Netanyahu claimed some 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of radioactive material had been recently removed from the atomic warehouse and squirreled away around Tehran, endangering the capital’s residents.

The site may have contained as much as 300 tons of nuclear-related equipment and material in 15 shipping containers, Netanyahu added. He did not specify what nuclear material was contained at the site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showcases material he says was obtained by Israeli intelligence from Iran’s nuclear weapons archive, in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2018. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO))

That speech came months after Israel’s disclosure that it had spirited away what it said was a “half-ton” of Iranian nuclear documents from Tehran, with Netanyahu saying both the archive and the warehouse were proof that Iran continues to seek atomic weapons despite the 2015 nuclear deal. “Iran has not abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons…. Rest assured that will not happen. What Iran hides, Israel will find,” Netanyahu told the UN.

Iran has denied that the site was a nuclear facility or served any secretive purpose. In an initial response to Netanyahu’s UN speech, Iranian state media claimed the warehouse was actually a recycling facility for scrap metal.

The report did confirm that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now more than 12 times the limit set down in a 2015 deal with world powers.

It said that as of November 2, “Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile… was 2,442.9 kg.”

The limit in the 2015 deal was set at 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of enriched uranium in a particular compound form, which is the equivalent of 202.8 kilograms of non-compound enriched uranium.

Wednesday’s report confirmed that, in line with previous statements by Iranian officials, centrifuges had been installed at an underground part of the Natanz nuclear facility after another part of the site was damaged in an explosion in July which Iran blamed on “sabotage.”