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Sudan’s DFC Ties Resuming Talks with Military to Probe in Sit-in Violence

Member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Professionals Association Mohamed Naji al-Assam. (AFP)
Member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Professionals Association Mohamed Naji al-Assam. (AFP)
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Sudan’s DFC Ties Resuming Talks with Military to Probe in Sit-in Violence

Member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Professionals Association Mohamed Naji al-Assam. (AFP)
Member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Professionals Association Mohamed Naji al-Assam. (AFP)

Sudan’s Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC), a consortium of civil society, labor and political organizations spearheading the ongoing popular revolution, said it would return to negotiating with the ruling military council if it concedes to an international probe to look into violence used to disperse protesters.

The DFC also said it refuses revising previous agreements.

Mohamed Naji al-Assam, a member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Professionals Association, explained that forming the investigative body does not necessarily mean that dialogue will need to wait until results are found.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, he said that preliminary approval to form the body could pave the way to resuming negotiations.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC) has, however, voiced its refusal of such a probe and called on the DFC to return to negotiations within 24 hours.

“We handed over to the Ethiopian mediator all prerequisite conditions and demands,” Assam noted, adding that they will be relayed to the TMC.

“The presence of mediation, support and close monitoring from the international community allows for following through with the peace process thoroughly,” he stressed.

Assam pointed out that the TMC admission that some of its members violently dispersed the sit-in undermines the credibility of its investigation and justifies the opposition’s demand for an independent probe.

As for moving Sudan peace talks to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Assam said it came upon the request of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was unable to make his scheduled trip to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, last week.

Nevertheless, Assam clarified that the invitation to move talks was pushed back after the DFC pointed out that there is no need to take that step yet as talks in Sudan have not reached a dead end.

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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon

The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation “is within reach.”

“We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,” he said.

“The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we’d been trying to work on it for over 10 years,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn’t realize that if we didn’t reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.”

He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there’s a “provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.”

“I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,” he said, adding: “It is within reach.”

Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as “complicated,” saying “I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions” there.

“The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn’t today.”

North of Litani

The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.

“I don’t want to get into the details of other violations,” he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.

Lebanon’s opportunity

“Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,” he said.

“There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran” which “should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,” he added.