Dagalo Accuses Sudanese Parties of ‘Obstructing’ Peace

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addresses troops at a camp west of Omdurman. SUNA
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addresses troops at a camp west of Omdurman. SUNA
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Dagalo Accuses Sudanese Parties of ‘Obstructing’ Peace

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addresses troops at a camp west of Omdurman. SUNA
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addresses troops at a camp west of Omdurman. SUNA

The leader of Sudan's Sovereign Council, Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah Burhan, said on Friday that his country is passing through exceptional circumstances imposed by the reality of the transitional period.

On the occasion of Eid al-Adha, Burhan called for spreading a spirit of forgiveness in the country to enhance national unity.

“There is a need to exert efforts for building state institutions during this transitional phase,” he said.

For his part, his deputy chairman, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, warned that some parties plan to obstruct peace.

Dagalo said the parties seek to incite strife and to settle their own scores to destroy the country.

“The international community wants to achieve peace in Sudan. However, unfortunately, some parties inside the country do not want peace,” he said.

Also on Friday, Chairman of Sudan’s opposition Umma Party Sadiq Al-Mahdi rejected to extend the transitional phase.

In a sermon delivered on the occasion of Eid al-Adha from Wad Nubawi mosque in Omdurman, he spoke about the "failure of the transitional period.”

After months of protests in Sudan, negotiations led last year to a joint civilian-military transitional government to govern the country for a period of 39 months.

In his evaluation of the transitional period, al-Mahdi disapproved Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok’s request to place Sudan under "UN tutelage.”

The NUP leader also criticized the PM’s acceptance of the principle of paying compensation to US victims of terror attacks committed by the ousted regime in order to remove Sudan from the list of countries that support terrorism.

The Umma Party leader said that the communist faction of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) recently established an alliance with the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu and formed a secularist bloc with external support from the right-wing American evangelical groups that seek to divide Sudan.

"This secularist bloc, with its declared policies, would provide the Islamist bloc with more reasons to justify its existence and actions,” he said.

Leader of the Original Democratic Unionist Party Muhammad Uthman al Mirghani expressed on Friday his support to the transitional government “until holding free and fair elections to allow the Sudanese people chose their representatives.”



US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

 A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Eases Restrictions on Syria While Keeping Sanctions in Place

 A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A worker stands at a bakery after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

The US on Monday eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after opposition factions ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last month.

The US Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

The move does not lift sanctions on the nation that has been battered by more than a decade of war, but indicates a limited show of US support for the new transitional government.

The general license underscores America's commitment to ensuring its sanctions “do not impede activities to meet basic human needs, including the provision of public services or humanitarian assistance,” a Treasury Department statement reads.

Since Assad's ouster, representatives from the nation's new de facto authorities have said that the new Syria will be inclusive and open to the world.

The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus between al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with al-Qaeda, and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into Syria since Assad’s ouster. The US and UN have long designated HTS as a terrorist organization.

HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.

Much of the world ended diplomatic relations with Assad because of his crackdown on protesters, and sanctioned him and his Russian and Iranian associates.

Syria’s infrastructure has been battered, with power cuts rampant in the country and some 90% of its population living in poverty. About half the population won’t know where its next meal will come from, as inflation surges.

The pressure to lift sanctions has mounted in recent years as aid agencies continue to cut programs due to donor fatigue and a massive 2023 earthquake that rocked Syria and Türkiye. The tremor killed over 59,000 people and destroyed critical infrastructure that couldn’t be fixed due to sanctions and overcompliance, despite the US announcing some humanitarian exemptions.