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UN Resumes Operations in Sudanese Capital after 3 Years of War

Officials are seen at the reopening ceremony in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Officials are seen at the reopening ceremony in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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UN Resumes Operations in Sudanese Capital after 3 Years of War

Officials are seen at the reopening ceremony in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Officials are seen at the reopening ceremony in Khartoum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The United Nations announced on Thursday that it was officially resuming operations in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after three years of war.

UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian and Development Coordinator in Sudan Denise Brown said the move was significant and allows UN agencies to reach all areas that were previously inaccessible.

Speaking at a press conference at the UN mission in central Khartoum, she added that the organization will continue its support to the state and individuals to end the war and reconstruct Sudan.

The UN quit Khartoum for Port Sudan shortly after the eruption of the war between the army and Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohi El-Din Salem said the UN’s return to Khartoum was an important message to internal partners that “we are working side by side to restore peace and stability in Sudan.”

“As we have reclaimed Khartoum from the rebel RSF, we will reclaim the regions of Darfur and Kordofan,” he told a press conference.

“We will work with the UN through the initiative proposed by Prime Minister Kamil Idris to the Security Council in December to end the war and restore peace and stability in Sudan,” he stressed.

Moreover, he said that Sudan was “open to all initiatives to reach sustainable peace,” while also rejecting any truce that allows the RSF to return to the Sudanese scene.

Sudan and the UN will work together to restore stability through intra-Sudanese dialogue, declared the FM. “Only the Sudanese people will decide the fate of their country.”

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Arab World

Houthis Sentence 19 to Death for Fighting for Yemen’s Legitimate Govt

People ride a vehicle driving past a digital billboard featuring Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi in Sanaa, Yemen, 14 May 2026. (EPA)
People ride a vehicle driving past a digital billboard featuring Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi in Sanaa, Yemen, 14 May 2026. (EPA)
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Houthis Sentence 19 to Death for Fighting for Yemen’s Legitimate Govt

People ride a vehicle driving past a digital billboard featuring Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi in Sanaa, Yemen, 14 May 2026. (EPA)
People ride a vehicle driving past a digital billboard featuring Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi in Sanaa, Yemen, 14 May 2026. (EPA)

A Houthi-controlled court in Yemen has sentenced 19 people to death after their conviction for fighting for the legitimate government.

Sunday's verdict, which can be appealed, came a few days after the Houthis and the government agreed on the largest prisoner swap in the conflict there, in which 1,600 detainees from both sides will be released.

The Specialized Criminal Court in the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, handed down the verdict, according to the Houthi-run Justice Ministry. Four other people received prison terms ranging between two and 10 years, the ministry said in a statement.

The defendants were convinced of establishing an armed group that provided support to the legitimate government between 2015 and 2023, the ministry said. They carried out attacks against Houthi-manned checkpoints and security facilities in the southern province of Dhale, it said.

The charges against five others were dropped after their deaths, the ministry said without explaining the circumstances.

The verdict was the latest in a yearslong crackdown by the Houthis in areas under their control. The militants have imprisoned thousands of people including United Nations staffers, resisting repeated calls for their release.

Courts in Houthi-controlled areas previously handed harsh sentences to those accused of collaborating with the government, in trials criticized by rights groups as unfair. In November, a Sanaa court convicted 17 people of spying for foreign governments and sentenced them to death.

In September 2021, the militants executed nine people who were convicted of involvement in the killing of a senior Houthi official, Saleh al-Samad, in an airstrike by the Arab coalition in April 2018.

Arab World

Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah Denies Link to Man Charged in US

Judge Sarah Netburn presides as Mohammad Al-Saadi, accused of planning an attack on a synagogue, appears in federal court in Manhattan, New York, US, May 15, 2026 in this courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Judge Sarah Netburn presides as Mohammad Al-Saadi, accused of planning an attack on a synagogue, appears in federal court in Manhattan, New York, US, May 15, 2026 in this courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
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Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah Denies Link to Man Charged in US

Judge Sarah Netburn presides as Mohammad Al-Saadi, accused of planning an attack on a synagogue, appears in federal court in Manhattan, New York, US, May 15, 2026 in this courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Judge Sarah Netburn presides as Mohammad Al-Saadi, accused of planning an attack on a synagogue, appears in federal court in Manhattan, New York, US, May 15, 2026 in this courtroom sketch. (Reuters)

The Iran-backed Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah, denied on Monday that a man accused of plotting attacks in the United States and Europe was a member of the group.

US authorities on Friday detailed charges against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, who was identified as a senior figure in Kataib Hezbollah, which the US designates as a terrorist organization.

"The abductee, Mohammaed Baqer al-Saadi does not belong to Kataib Hezbollah," the group's security commander Abou Moujahed al-Assaf said in a statement.

But he added that Saadi "will return to his country with his head held high, because he is among the lovers and supporters of the resistance."

According to US court filings, Saadi and unidentified associates planned, coordinated and claimed responsibility for at least 18 attacks in Europe, and two in Canada, including a non-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London, and several arson attacks on synagogues in other countries.

He is most recently alleged to have also plotted attacks in the United States.

He appeared on Friday at a Manhattan court where he was charged with six counts including conspiracy to provide material support to Kataib Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

A senior Iraqi security source told AFP that Saadi was arrested in Türkiye before being transferred to the US.

Kataib Hezbollah is part of the umbrella movement known as the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, which claimed hundreds of attacks against US interests in Iraq and the wider region during the Middle East war.

The attacks have ceased since a ceasefire was announced in April.

The US State Department announced last month that it was offering up to $10 million for information on the group's leader, Ahmad al-Hamidawi.

Arab World

Lebanon Death Toll Reaches 3,000 in Fighting Between Israel and Hezbollah

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on the village of Zibdin in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on the village of Zibdin in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Death Toll Reaches 3,000 in Fighting Between Israel and Hezbollah

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on the village of Zibdin in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on the village of Zibdin in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon on May 18, 2026. (AFP)

The death toll in the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon has surpassed 3,000, Lebanon's health ministry said Monday.

The ministry said the toll is now 3,020 in the fighting that has not stopped despite a fragile ceasefire, including 292 women and 211 children. Fighting began on March 2 with the Hezbollah group firing at Israel, two days after the US and Israel attacked Iran.

Israel has since invaded southern Lebanon and bombarded the capital, Beirut, and other areas, saying it is targeting Hezbollah efforts to rearm. Hezbollah has resisted pressure, including by the Lebanese government, to disarm.

More than a million people have been displaced in Lebanon by the fighting, with some sheltering in tents along roads and the sea in Beirut. Israel, meanwhile, has struggled to halt frequent Hezbollah drone attacks.

Groundbreaking direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, facilitated by the United States, produced the ceasefire that began on April 17 and has been extended into June. The neighbors have been officially in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.

Hezbollah, however, is not part of the talks.

Israeli officials have focused on disarming Hezbollah and described the negotiations as a precursor to a potential normalization of diplomatic relations. Lebanese officials have said they seek a security agreement or armistice that would stop short of normalization.

US President Donald Trump has publicly called for a meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Aoun has declined to meet or speak directly with Netanyahu at this stage — a move that would likely generate blowback in Lebanon, where talks with Israel were met with protests.

Twenty Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians inside Israel and a defense contractor working in southern Lebanon have been killed on the Israeli side.

UN peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon have also been caught in the crossfire and six have been killed.