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In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
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In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a Lebanese paramilitary group affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed responsibility on Saturday for a military operation against Israel in southern Lebanon.
The announcement is the first for the group, founded by Hezbollah in 1997, since the Israeli war on Gaza. The group includes volunteer fighters from different sects in Lebanon.
According to a statement issued by the Brigades on Friday, it began its engagement in the war by shelling with rockets the Israeli 'Rweisat al-Qarn' site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, scoring a “direct hit”, it said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year.
Hezbollah says it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-allied group that ignited the war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. The group’s leadership says it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in Gaza, and that while it does not want war, it is ready for one.
Diplomatic talks to end the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah have failed so far.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government rejected Israel’s demands to evacuate the border area in Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters.
The parliamentary bloc of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, made that clear by welcoming any international efforts aiming at quelling Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The bloc affirmed “rejection of discussions regarding the establishment of buffer zones on Lebanon’s sovereign territory, whether in southern Lebanon or in its north."
Meanwhile cross-border fire continues in south Lebanon. A Lebanese army vehicle of type 'Humvee' came under Israeli machine gun fire from the village of Ghajar near Wazzani.
Reports said the vehicle was directly hit with four bullets. However, the personnel miraculously escaped unharmed from this attack.

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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Blinken Agrees to Bilateral Meeting with Sudan’s Army Chief

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP)
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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Blinken Agrees to Bilateral Meeting with Sudan’s Army Chief

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has agreed to a meeting with Commander of the Sudanese army Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, trusted sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The agreement to meet took place during a telephone call between the officials on Monday.

They agreed to hold a bilateral meeting ahead of negotiations in Switzerland on December 15.

The sources said Blinken suggested that the talks be held in Switzerland, while Burhan proposed Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah that had already held negotiations between the army and Rapid Support Forces and led to the Declaration of Principles.

During a briefing on the telephone call, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that Blinken “reiterated the need for the army to participate in ceasefire talks in Switzerland.”

“The Secretary underscored the need to urgently end the fighting and enable unhindered humanitarian access, including cross border and cross line, to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people,” he added.

In a post on the X platform, Burhan said he discussed with Blinken “the need to address pressing government affairs before starting any negotiations.”

Despite the government’s announcement that it was prepared to take part in the negotiations in Switzerland, it is hoping that they would be preceded by the RSF implementing the Declaration of Principles that was signed in Jeddah in May 2023.

On the Blinken-Burhan meeting, the sources said the government may demand that Washington exert more pressure on the countries that are allegedly supporting the RSF in the ongoing war with the army.

The demands may also include pressing the RSF to agree to a ceasefire and end military operations so that they don’t capture more Sudanese territories, added the sources.

The meeting will also most likely address the “future of the RSF in Sudan’s political scene,” continued the sources.