Discrepancy Over Sudanese Army’s Conditions to Return to Jeddah Talks

Smoke billows in the distance around a Khartoum district amid ongoing fighting on July 14, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows in the distance around a Khartoum district amid ongoing fighting on July 14, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
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Discrepancy Over Sudanese Army’s Conditions to Return to Jeddah Talks

Smoke billows in the distance around a Khartoum district amid ongoing fighting on July 14, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows in the distance around a Khartoum district amid ongoing fighting on July 14, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed the army delegation’s readiness to return to the Jeddah negotiations as soon as the Saudi and American mediators managed to overcome the obstacles that prevented the continuation of the talks.

The army delegation withdrew from the negotiations on Wednesday, accusing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of obstructing an agreement to end the hostilities, because of its refusal to evacuate homes and service facilities. For its part, the RSF attributed the faltering of the agreement to the army delegation’s condition to open a safe passage for the exit of its commanders besieged in military headquarters in Khartoum.

In the statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed Sudan’s desire to reach a just agreement to stop hostilities, which would pave the way for discussing the post-war phase.

“The Foreign Ministry renews its appreciation for the efforts made by Saudi Arabia and the United States to facilitate the rounds of negotiations in Jeddah, and their keenness to make them a success,” it said, adding that the intransigence of the Rapid Support Forces and their non-compliance with the implementation of their obligations were the reason behind the failure of the Jeddah negotiations, which prompted the army delegation to return to the country.

The RSF commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”, stressed that the war would end if the current army leadership stepped down.

The RSF claims that it is besieging the army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, his deputy, Lieutenant General Shams al-Din Kabashi, and senior officers at the main headquarters of the army command, in the center of the capital, Khartoum. Al-Burhan and Al-Kabashi appeared more than once in the vicinity of the place in video recordings.

On the other hand, Vice-President of the Sovereignty Council Malik Agar, accused the RSF of committing heinous crimes against civilians, pointing to the targeting of some ethnic groups in the Darfur region.

Addressing the Russian-African summit in St. Petersburg, Agar blamed the RSF for the current crisis in Sudan, saying that the group launched an all-out war on the capital and some cities, causing heinous crimes and unprecedented human suffering.



UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 798 killings both at aid points run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups, including the UN.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.

The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

"Up until the seventh of July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May and has repeatedly denied that incidents had occurred at its sites.