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Sudan Mulling Int’l Arbitration in Dispute with Ethiopia Over GERD

Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yassir Abbas. AFP
Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yassir Abbas. AFP
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Sudan Mulling Int’l Arbitration in Dispute with Ethiopia Over GERD

Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yassir Abbas. AFP
Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yassir Abbas. AFP

The dispute on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam escalated on Friday after Sudan announced that it was mulling to resort to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in case Addis Ababa completes the second filling of GERD.

If the second filling is completed without a binding legal agreement, Sudanese legal teams backed by international legal firms would file lawsuits against the Italian company that is executing the project and the Ethiopian government, to compensate for the damages that Sudan would suffer from, Sudanese Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yassir Abbas said Friday.

He said Sudan was studying various options, including resorting to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Human Right Commissions and the COMESA Court.

"Failure to reach an agreement paves the way for raising a complaint to the Security Council, considering that the GERD poses a real threat to regional peace and security," the minister warned.

Abbas said Ethiopia had rejected a Sudanese proposal to use EU, US and UN mediators led by the African Union.

He added that while previous negotiations between the three countries had yielded agreement over 90% of outstanding issues, that progress was now in doubt.

Egypt said it was willing to reach a comprehensive, fair and balanced deal on filling the dam in a way that serves the interest of the three countries and protects regional stability and peace.

It expressed its stance during a virtual meeting between Egyptian Ambassador in London Tarek Adel and UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly on the GERD negotiations.

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Arab World

China Says Israel Should Stop Its 'Forced Establishment' of West Bank Settlements

Cattle gather in an enclosure at a farm run by Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Duma in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 13, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
Cattle gather in an enclosure at a farm run by Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Duma in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 13, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
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China Says Israel Should Stop Its 'Forced Establishment' of West Bank Settlements

Cattle gather in an enclosure at a farm run by Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Duma in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 13, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
Cattle gather in an enclosure at a farm run by Israeli settlers near the Palestinian town of Duma in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 13, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel should stop and reverse its "forced establishment" of West Bank settlements, China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

China has consistently held that the Palestinian question is the greatest historical injustice of this ‌century, Wang ‌told Herzog during a meeting ‌in ⁠Azerbaijan, the ministry ⁠added.

Wang had earlier said that promoting peace and reconciliation in the region is the "cornerstone" of China's Middle East policy

China believes that the "two-state solution" is the right path ⁠to a resolution and the ‌immediate priority ‌is to fully open access to the ‌Gaza Strip so a humanitarian "catastrophe" ‌is not allowed to spread, Wang added

At the same time, Israel should stop and reverse its forced establishment of ‌settlements in the West Bank, he said

China is ⁠willing ⁠to work with the international community to push all parties to return to dialogue and consultation as soon as possible and seek a political settlement of the conflict, Wang added

China has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and Beijing also has close ties with Israel's main regional foe, Iran.

Arab World

Jbessa Gas Export Pipeline Targeted in Northeastern Syria, Fire Erupts, SANA Reports

File: Flames rise at Tishreen thermal power plant following an explosion, near Otaybah, Syria, September 30, 2026, in this screengrab from video obtained from social media. Social Media/via REUTERS
File: Flames rise at Tishreen thermal power plant following an explosion, near Otaybah, Syria, September 30, 2026, in this screengrab from video obtained from social media. Social Media/via REUTERS
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Jbessa Gas Export Pipeline Targeted in Northeastern Syria, Fire Erupts, SANA Reports

File: Flames rise at Tishreen thermal power plant following an explosion, near Otaybah, Syria, September 30, 2026, in this screengrab from video obtained from social media. Social Media/via REUTERS
File: Flames rise at Tishreen thermal power plant following an explosion, near Otaybah, Syria, September 30, 2026, in this screengrab from video obtained from social media. Social Media/via REUTERS

The Jbessa gas export pipeline in northeastern Syria was targeted in the al-Arabidi area, causing a fire, state news agency SANA reported on Thursday citing the director of the Syrian Petroleum Company's media office.

The company said in a statement that the 16-inch ‌pipeline exploded at ‌5.15 p.m. in an ‌area ⁠about 60 km ⁠from the city of Shaddadi. It did not specify the cause of the explosion, according to Reuters.

Technical teams isolated the damaged section by closing valves at the Jbessa gas plant and the ⁠Deir Ezzor gas station ‌in the al-Bughailiya area, ‌while firefighting and safety crews headed to ‌the site to secure the area, ‌the company said.

The extent of the damage and whether gas supplies had been disrupted were not immediately clear.

The explosion ‌followed a separate incident on Thursday morning in which the Baniyas-Homs ⁠oil ⁠products pipeline was damaged near the village of Hudeida in the western Homs countryside in what the company described as sabotage aimed at stealing fuel.

That incident caused a gasoline leak, the company said, adding that work was continuing to repair the damage and restore the line to service.

Arab World

Netanyahu Says Spoke with Syria’s Sharaa on Sweida Unrest

People walk under a giant election billboard bearing a portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in Ramat Gan, on October 15, 2026. (AFP)
People walk under a giant election billboard bearing a portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in Ramat Gan, on October 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Netanyahu Says Spoke with Syria’s Sharaa on Sweida Unrest

People walk under a giant election billboard bearing a portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in Ramat Gan, on October 15, 2026. (AFP)
People walk under a giant election billboard bearing a portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in Ramat Gan, on October 15, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had previously spoken with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about violence towards the Druze community, in his first acknowledgement of direct contact.

Netanyahu did not say when exactly the call took place, but implied it had been during bloody clashes in southern Syria in July of 2025 involving Druze factions, Bedouin fighters and government security forces.

"I called al-Sharaa. It was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the slaughter stopped," Netanyahu said at an election rally with Israel's Druze community, according to footage aired by Israel's public broadcaster KAN.

The 2025 clashes erupted in Syria's Sweida province between armed Druze factions and Bedouin fighters, with government security forces and some tribal groups then intervening.

A committee set up by the Syrian government said it had documented 1,760 deaths.

Israel, which also has a Druze population, intervened militarily during the clashes, with strikes in Sweida and against government targets in Damascus, saying it was defending the minority community.

Government-aligned forces later withdrew from Sweida city, leaving a fragile ceasefire in place, and in July of this year Damascus said it had begun trying suspects over the violence.

A Syrian government source told the country's state news agency SANA on Thursday that Damascus "categorically rejects any attempt to politicize (Syria's Druze minority) or to involve it in Israeli propaganda and elections," without confirming nor denying whether the call between Netanyahu and Sharaa had taken place.

Since the December 2024 ousting of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan since 1974.

It has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory and has vowed to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" in southern Syria, where it seeks a broader demilitarized area.

Syria's new leaders have condemned Israeli military action in the country's south but have refrained from responding with force.

Despite the tensions, Syria and Israel have held several rounds of direct talks as they edge towards a security agreement.