'The Palestinian cause has delayed progress of the Arab world, and has been exploited by the Arab regimes to oppress their peoples.'

Sudan's Investment Minister Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi, speaking on Sudania 24 TV spoke candidly about normalization with Israel, and his words were translated by MEMRI TV:

"I have my own opinion about the Palestinian cause, Israel, and all that. I think that people are more emotionally invested in this than reality warrants.

"The Palestinians share much of the responsibility for what has happened to them. They sold their lands and created many problems. The Arabs made grave mistakes by rejecting the Partition Plan and other resolutions. The Arab countries peddled in the Palestinian cause. Whenever someone stages a coup, he says it's for the liberation of Palestine (laughs, mumbles, 'so to speak...')... They have peddled in the Palestinian cause ad nauseum. It has become a political commodity in the Arab world."

The interviewer asks "if we were offered normalization of our relations with Israel...As a politician, would you support or oppose this?"

Al-Mahdi answers "I would consider it in accordance with the interests of Sudan."

The interviewer seeks to pin al-Mahdi down to an explicit acceptance of normalization with Israel and asks, "Right now, tonight, I would decide according to the interests of Sudan is normalization of relations with Israel in our best interests or not?"

Al-Mahdi rises to the challenge and states "I don't base this on emotions, but on the interests of Sudan. All the countries have normalized their relations with Israel."

"So you do not object to such normalization?"

"I don't think it is such a big deal," answers al-Mahdi. "The Palestinians themselves have normalized their relations with Israel."

"The Palestinian cause has delayed the progress of the Arab world, and has been exploited by the Arab regimes to oppress their peoples, under the guise of the struggle for the sake of Palestine. I believe that the Palestinians are handling their cause by themselves.

"Ask any Sudanese working in the Gulf or anywhere, and he will tell you that wherever he meets a Palestinian, that Palestinian feels nothing for him. He's immediately plotting how to get him fired from the company. They are ungrateful for the empathy they received from the Arab world."

Describing the Israelis, al-Mahdi says, "They have the moral values of Westerners. They operate scientifically. They have a democratic regime, their presidents stand trial and go to jail," and al-Mahdi laughs heartily at the very mention. "They have a transparent regime, whether you agree with them or not."

The interviewer, clearly entertained, chides, "You're not planning to get some Israeli companies here to develop citrus for us, are you?", and laughs.

Al-Mahdi answers, "Well, I think that technology has no nationality. You shouldn't care where you get that technology from."