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Sudan Plans to Benefit from its Full Share of Nile Water

Sudan's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
Sudan's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
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Sudan Plans to Benefit from its Full Share of Nile Water

Sudan's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)
Sudan's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas takes part in a trilateral meeting to resume negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 21, 2019. (AFP)

Sudan's Water Minister Yasser Abbas said on Friday that his country was barely using 6 billion cubic meters of water from its 18.5 billion share from the Nile River, stressing the need to revise the laws regulating water projects in a way to allow Khartoum benefit from its full share.

“Sudan is not using more than 6 billion cubic meters of water from its 18.5 billion share, listed in the 1959 agreement,” he said.

The agreement with Britain increased Egypt’s share of the Nile water to 55.5 billion, while Sudan received 18.5 billion.

The deal has governed the use of Cairo’s water to date and it allowed Egypt the right to veto any construction projects that would impede the flow of water into the Nile.

During the first meeting of the advisory council tasked with placing the ministry’s policies and programs during the transitional phase in Sudan, Abbas said that the isolated system of the water harvesting program in Sudan was used for political and not service purposes, adding that this program was not implemented in the best ways.

He said that the principle challenges that the ministry was currently facing are to build water harvest facilities and to manage them in a sustainable manner.

“We rely on the advisory council to discuss and draw new policies and programs to allow the implementation of such projects,” he said.

The minister mentioned the lack of water engineers working at the ministry. “We are working to restructure the ministry during the upcoming phase to attract young engineers,” he said.

Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile began in 2012, but since then Egypt has sounded the alarm that the project would severely reduce its water supplies.

In November, the foreign ministers and water resources ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met in Washington to discuss issues related to the dam and they agreed to hold four technical meetings to follow up and assess the progress.

The first meeting was held in Ethiopia in November and the second meeting was held in Cairo in December.

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Arab World

Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final Agreement

Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final Agreement

Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)

Contacts and meetings held between Israel and Syria have not reached any final understanding or agreement between both sides, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday in response to a report published by Asharq Al-Awsat.

Asharq Al-Awsat had quoted unnamed sources saying US mediation brought Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa together for a meeting during September’s UN General Assembly in New York.

Those talks advanced far enough that Netanyahu declined to endorse a draft security arrangement with Damascus, it wrote.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in statement: “There were contacts and meetings organized by the US, but no agreements and understandings with Syria were ever reached.”

Amid the controversy, a Syrian source familiar with the details told Channel 12: “The final draft of the agreement is almost ready and in its last stages. A breakthrough could happen very soon.”

The source added: “The agreement’s terms are largely agreed upon, with many clauses symbolically signed and written, waiting for US officials to approach Israel and say: ‘This is the final formula, and we want to move forward.’”

He said the pause is currently on Israel’s side, not Syria’s. “So far, the formula is acceptable to Syria and largely acceptable to Israel.”

Israeli media outlets recalled what happened between both sides last September.

The i24 News channel said that at the time, Sharaa had affirmed Damascus and Jerusalem will soon share a new security agreement. His comments came shortly after Reuters said Washington is pushing for enough progress to be made by the time world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly at the end of the month to allow Trump to announce a breakthrough.

The Israeli channel said the deal was obstructed after Syria presented territorial demands that Israel cannot accept, including a withdrawal from the strategically sensitive Mount Hermon and areas in Syria’s buffer zone.

Later, the Times of Israel newspaper confirmed the reports saying that while there was optimism in September that a deal could be signed, Reuters reported at the time of the assembly that contacts between Israel and Syria regarding the deal had reached a dead end due to Israel’s demand to open a “humanitarian corridor” into the Sweida province in southern Syria – where sectarian violence has killed hundreds of people from the Druze community, which Israel has vowed to protect.

The newspaper also cited an Axios report saying Israel has reportedly presented Syria with a detailed proposal for a new security agreement regarding southwest Syria, demanding a no-fly zone and demilitarized zone over its border in Syria, with no limits on Israeli deployment on its own territory.

In return, Israel would withdraw in stages from the buffer zone it established after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fell last December, but would remain on the peak of Mount Hermon.

The Israeli army has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria for nearly a year, since the Assad regime was brought down, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

Israel said it seized the areas in southern Syria last December due to fears they would fall into the wrong hands after the regime collapsed and said it would hold on to them until a new security deal was signed.

The Walla website reported that Netanyahu was present at the UN General Assembly meeting and was planning to meet with the Syrian leader and sign a security deal with Syria.

But Damascus insisted on Israel’s withdrawal from territory seized in the Golan Heights since Assad’s fall. Tel Aviv refused, saying its troops need to remain in the area to protect its residents in the north.

Arab World

Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)

French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian continued his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday over consolidating the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Le Drian held talks on Monday with President Joseph Aoun and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, Army Commander Rodolphe Haykal and former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and his son MP Taymur Jumblatt on Tuesday.

Aoun told Le Drian that Lebanon welcomes any role France can play within the Mechanism committee overseeing the ceasefire, rejecting accusations that the Lebanese army was not doing enough to meet its end of the agreement.

The committee aims to end the hostilities, ensure Israel’s withdrawal from regions it is occupying in southern Lebanon and release Lebanese detainees held by Israel.

A Lebanese presidency statement said Aoun welcomed French President Emmanuel’s constant support for Lebanon, stressing that they reflect the depth of Lebanese-French ties.

Aoun revealed to Le Drian that the Mechanism will meet again on December 19.

“Our desire to activate the Mechanism meetings reflects our willingness to negotiate to reach diplomatic solutions because we never want to adopt war rhetoric,” Aoun added.

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades last week under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

The two sides met at the UN peacekeeping force's headquarters in Lebanon's Naqoura near the border with Israel, where the guarantors of the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah regularly convene.

Former Lebanese ambassador to the US Simon Karam and Israeli National Security Council official Uri Resnick were included as civilian representatives in the ceasefire mechanism for the first time.

Aoun told Le Drian that “the positive stances from fraternal and friendly states that followed last week’s meeting reflect their support for this step and will inevitably ease the pressure” that Lebanon was under.

He reiterated his rejection of criticism that the army was not doing enough to enforce the ceasefire agreement.

He instead accused Israel of continuing its attacks against Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire. He said it has destroyed homes and properties, preventing the army, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Mechanism from completing their duties.

He stressed that the army and UNIFIL were acting in complete coordination, while urging the need to provide the military with the necessary equipment to allow it to fulfill its mission in full.

The mission, he remarked, is not limited to regions south of the Litani River, but includes all of Lebanon.

Le Drian, for his part, conveyed to Aoun Macron’s support for Karam’s appointment to the Lebanon’s negotiating team, adding that Paris “will always stand by Beirut’s national choices.”

Talks between Berri and the envoy, which lasted over an hour, tackled the situation in Lebanon and the region, especially Israel’s ongoing violations of the ceasefire.

Paris is set to hold next week a meeting between France, the United States and Saudi Arabia in preparation for a conference aimed at backing the Lebanese army and support a roadmap for a long-term ceasefire.

Arab World

Shells of Unknown Origin Land Near Military Airport in Damascus, Syrian State TV Says

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
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Shells of Unknown Origin Land Near Military Airport in Damascus, Syrian State TV Says

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)

Shells of unknown origin fell in the vicinity of Syria's Mezzah military airport in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, the state-run Al Ekhbariya TV reported.

Syria's state news agency earlier reported the sound of an explosion in the vicinity of Damascus and said the matter was under investigation.

The airbase sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria.