RSF Ready for a Ceasefire, Hemedti to Meet Al-Burhan Anywhere

Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) expressed readiness for a cease-fire and meeting with Al-Burhan. (AP)
Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) expressed readiness for a cease-fire and meeting with Al-Burhan. (AP)
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RSF Ready for a Ceasefire, Hemedti to Meet Al-Burhan Anywhere

Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) expressed readiness for a cease-fire and meeting with Al-Burhan. (AP)
Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) expressed readiness for a cease-fire and meeting with Al-Burhan. (AP)

With the renewed battles in Khartoum, a source in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the readiness of Lieutenant General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) to stop the fighting and meet with the Army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, to put an end to the war.

In parallel, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its desire to host negotiations between the parties to the Sudanese conflict in Moscow.

The office of the President of South Sudan said that the RSF commander agreed to a cease-fire and a halt to all forms of hostilities in Sudan.

During a meeting in Juba with the RSF envoy, Youssef Ezzat, South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardir expressed his concern about the suffering of the Sudanese people and urged both Al-Burhan and Hemedti to agree on the cease-fire.

In a press conference following the meeting, Ezzat voiced Hemedti’s readiness to meet with Al-Burhan anywhere and at any time, provided that a ceasefire be declared.

“Dagalo fully supports the peace process led by Mayardit through the IGAD organization,” Ezzat said, stressing that Juba was “an ideal place for Sudanese peace talks.”

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced, on Thursday, that Moscow was ready to “host negotiations between the Sudanese parties.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that his country “opposes external interference in Sudanese affairs.”

“They must sort out their own problems, and we are ready to assist in this since we have long-standing ties,” he declared.

Moscow had denied Western reports about the Wagner Group’s involvement in the fighting between the Sudanese parties, but confirmed that Sudan can benefit from the group’s services.

The founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in earlier comments that he was ready to help the Sudanese parties if asked to do so, adding that he had “good relations with all parties, which makes him an acceptable mediator.”

 



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.