Sudan Peace Negotiations to Resume in Jeddah Thursday

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, receiving Deputy Commander of SAF, Shamseddine al-Kabashi (Sudanese Armed Forces)
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, receiving Deputy Commander of SAF, Shamseddine al-Kabashi (Sudanese Armed Forces)
TT

Sudan Peace Negotiations to Resume in Jeddah Thursday

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, receiving Deputy Commander of SAF, Shamseddine al-Kabashi (Sudanese Armed Forces)
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, receiving Deputy Commander of SAF, Shamseddine al-Kabashi (Sudanese Armed Forces)

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) said Sunday it will resume Thursday the peace talks with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Deputy Commander of SAF, Shamseddine al-Kabashi, announced that the army was invited to Jeddah to resume negotiations.

"Our delegation will go to Jeddah and begin negotiations on coming Thursday," he told army officers at Wadi Seidna military base in Omdurman.

The negotiations, which stopped in June, are scheduled to discuss a permanent ceasefire throughout the country, paving the way for the start of a political process with the participation of political and civil forces.

Saudi Arabia and the US are meditating on talks between the two warring parties in Sudan to end the war that has been ongoing since mid-April.

On Saturday, Kabashi left the headquarters of the Army General Command in the center of Khartoum, which the Rapid Support Forces have claimed to besiege since the outbreak of the war.

The media office of the Transitional Sovereign Council reported on Facebook that the Chairman of the Council and Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, met with Kabashi in Port Sudan, which has almost become the country's alternative capital due to the ongoing war.

After Kabashi left the General Command, he went directly to the Wadi Seidna military base in the Karari region, north of Omdurman.

He told the forces at the military base that the army would defeat the rebellion all over the country and not just in Khartoum, stressing that the Karari military region would stand against rebellion.

He reassured the army forces deployed across the country that "the situation is getting better day by day."

Earlier, Burhan announced in several interviews on the sidelines of his participation at the UN General Assembly meetings in September that the army was prepared to respond to any mediation to resume talks in Jeddah.

The Saudi-US mediation suspended talks in early June after the Sudanese parties failed to adhere to the second ceasefire and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid to civilians stranded in areas of clashes in Khartoum.

High-ranking sources informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the Director of Sudanese General Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmed Ibrahim Mufaddal, met RSF's legal advisor Mohammad al-Mukhtar in Addis Ababa earlier this month.

According to the sources, the meeting addressed opening new communication channels between the two parties to return to the Jeddah-sponsored talks.



Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire, the military said on Friday.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said troops had killed around 100 Palestinian fighters since Israeli troops began their latest operation in Khan Younis on Monday, which continued as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the fighting.

It said seven small units that had been firing mortars at the troops were hit in an air strike, while further south, in Rafah, four fighters were also killed in air strikes.

The Islamic Jihad armed wing said it fired rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and other Israeli towns near Gaza. No casualties were reported, the Israeli ambulance service said.

The continued fighting, more than nine months since the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack, underlined the difficulty the IDF has had in eliminating fighters who have reverted to a form of guerrilla warfare in the ruins of the coastal strip.

A Telegram channel operated by the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main militant groups in Gaza, said fighters had been waging fierce battles with Israeli troops east of Khan Younis with machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.

Medics said at least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Khan Younis.

US PRESSURE

US President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, both urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a proposed ceasefire deal as soon as possible.

However there has been no clear sign of movement in talks to end the fighting and bring home some 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still being held in Gaza. Public statements from Israel and Hamas appear to indicate that serious differences remain between the two sides.

Local residents contacted by messenger app, said Israeli tanks had pushed into three towns to the east of Khan Younis, Bani Suhaila, Al-Zanna and Al-Karara and blew up several houses in some residential districts.

The military said air force jets hit around 45 targets, including tunnels and two launch pads from which rockets were fired into Beersheba in southern Israel.

Even while the fighting continued around Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, in the northern part of the enclave, Israeli tanks pushed into the Tel Al-Hawa suburb west of Gaza city, residents said.

A Hamas Telegram channel said fighters targeted an Israeli tank in Tal Al-Hawa and shot an Israeli soldier.

Medics said two Palestinians were also killed in an air strike in western Gaza city.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.