Biden Calls on Sudan's Warring Parties to Re-engage in Negotiations

US President Joe Biden speaks before a wildfire briefing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, 17 September 2024. EPA/SAMUEL CORUM
US President Joe Biden speaks before a wildfire briefing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, 17 September 2024. EPA/SAMUEL CORUM
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Biden Calls on Sudan's Warring Parties to Re-engage in Negotiations

US President Joe Biden speaks before a wildfire briefing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, 17 September 2024. EPA/SAMUEL CORUM
US President Joe Biden speaks before a wildfire briefing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, 17 September 2024. EPA/SAMUEL CORUM

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Sudan's warring parties to re-engage in negotiations to end a war that has been ongoing for more than 17 months.

"We call for all parties to this conflict to end this violence and refrain from fueling it, for the future of Sudan and for all of the Sudanese people," Biden said in a statement.

"I call on the belligerents responsible for Sudanese suffering—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—to pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and re-engage in negotiations to end this war,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

More than 12,000 people have been killed across Sudan since the war started on April 15, 2023.

The conflict began when competition between Sudan's army and the RSF, which had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.

Biden said the RSF's assault is disproportionately harming Sudanese civilians and called on the armed forces to stop "indiscriminate" bombings that are destroying civilian lives and infrastructure.

The US previously determined that the two sides committed war crimes and sanctioned 16 individuals and entities tied to the war.

Biden said the United States will continue to evaluate further atrocity allegations and potential additional sanctions.



Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Report: France Issues New Arrest Warrant for Syria's Assad

A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. (AFP)

Two French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for suspected complicity in war crimes, the second such move by France's judicial authorities, a source said on Tuesday.

Assad, who was ousted late last year in a lightning offensive by opposition forces, is held responsible in the warrant issued on Monday as "commander-in-chief of the armed forces" for a bombing in the Syrian city of Daraa in 2017 that killed a civilian, a source close to the case, asking not to be named, told AFP.

This mandate was issued as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabout, a 59-year-old Franco-Syrian national and former French teacher, who was killed on June 7, 2017 following the bombing of his home by Syrian army helicopters.

The French judiciary considers that Assad ordered and provided the means for this attack, according to the source.

Six senior Syrian army officials are already the target of French arrest warrants over the case in an investigation that began in 2018.

"This case represents the culmination of a long fight for justice, in which I and my family believed from the start," said Omar Abou Nabout, the victim's son, in a statement.

He expressed hope that "a trial will take place and that the perpetrators will be arrested and judged, wherever they are".

French authorities in November 2023 issued a first arrest warrant against Assad over chemical attacks in 2013 where more than a thousand people, according to American intelligence, were killed by sarin gas.

While considering Assad's participation in these attacks "likely", public prosecutors last year issued an appeal against the warrant on the grounds that Assad should have immunity as a head of state.

However, his ouster has now changed his status and potential immunity. Assad and his family fled to Russia after his fall, according to Russian authorities.