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Satterfield Visits Khartoum to Advance Democratic Transition

Protesters march during a rally against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Protesters march during a rally against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
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Satterfield Visits Khartoum to Advance Democratic Transition

Protesters march during a rally against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Protesters march during a rally against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield was in Sudan on Thursday on a two-day visit to discuss with military and civilian leaders efforts to put the country back on the transition track following the army’s coup in October 25.

The US State Department said Satterfield aims “to engage stakeholders in support of the Sudanese people’s desire to advance their country’s democratic transition under a civilian-led government.”

The Oct. 25 military takeover has upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule.

The coup prompted mass protests during which 81 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors.

US Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and Satterfield, who had been newly appointed, visited Sudan in January during which they met with pro-democracy activists and ruling generals.

The US has criticized a pattern of arrests and detentions of civil society activists, journalists, and humanitarian workers in Sudan. It has also condemned the use of live fire against demonstrators and has called for a transparent investigation into the deaths of protesters.

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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.