Sudan’s National Umma Party: UN Mediation Efforts Didn’t Reach Initiative Stage

UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) head Volker Perthes, AFP
UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) head Volker Perthes, AFP
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Sudan’s National Umma Party: UN Mediation Efforts Didn’t Reach Initiative Stage

UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) head Volker Perthes, AFP
UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) head Volker Perthes, AFP

The political process sponsored by the United Nations and its Special Representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, is not an initiative because it is still in its early phase, said National Umma Party Chairperson Fadlallah Baramah Nasser.

Nasser said that his party has agreed in principle to the political process and leaving details for later stages.

Perthes also heads the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS).

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Nasser clarified that the UN-backed political process is still in the phase of exploring different views and has not yet matured into an initiative.

“We are the ones who want the initiative, and as a party we accept it in principle and conduct the necessary consultations to reach it,” said Nasser.

He revealed that Perthes had contacted the military and met with head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. This could mean that the UN diplomat had received an initial agreement from the military.

On Friday, the head of the UNITAMS launched a political dialogue to reach a complete consensus between Sudanese parties in the hopes of it leading to a full democratic transition under civilian leadership.

Perthes’ move looks to end the current political crisis in the country.

On January 8, Perthes sent out an invitation to all Sudanese parties urging them to arrive to a solution that allows Sudan to escape political turmoil.

The call for holding expanded talks under Perthes’ sponsorship was made to all political parties, civil society organizations, armed movements, women’s groups and popular resistance committees.

Perthes’ call for consultations received mixed responses from Sudanese parties.

One of the major organizers of Sudan’s anti-coup protests, the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, refused an offer from the UN to mediate talks with the military.

The Association said in a statement that the “only way” out of the crisis was through the removal of the generals from the seats of power in the country.

Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the umbrella coalition for the groups behind the protests, said it had not received any details of Perthes’ proposal.



Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, as some Palestinians there said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighborhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel army said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.