Active Regional, Int’l Mediations Seek to Resolve Sudanese Crisis

Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo. (Getty Images)
Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo. (Getty Images)
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Active Regional, Int’l Mediations Seek to Resolve Sudanese Crisis

Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo. (Getty Images)
Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo. (Getty Images)

Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, held talks on Monday with the European Union Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, Annette Weber.

He called on all Sudanese parties to make “national concessions” to maintain the country's security and stability and renewed the military’s commitment to withdraw from the political scene and form a civilian-led government.

Hemedti underscored the importance of the EU’s support to the peace process in the country, especially with regard to security arrangements.

He urged Weber not to link the humanitarian and development aid to political developments in the country.

Weber, for her part, stressed that the EU is keen to encourage political and civil forces in Sudan to reach an agreement to complete the transitional period.

Meanwhile, the military members of the Sovereign Council, Lt. Gen Yasser al-Atta and General Shams al-Din Khabbashi, said the army is neither with nor against any of the proposed initiatives to resolve the political crisis. They called on political forces to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

The officials held separate meetings with UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan Robert Fairweather and UK Special Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa Sarah Montgomery at the presidential palace on Monday.

The British officials arrived in Khartoum on Sunday to hold talks with the Sudanese parties.

Their visit aims to convey the UK’s support to the Sudanese people as they seek to reach a settlement that leads to a political breakthrough and the formation of a framework for a comprehensive civilian-led transitional government.

Separately, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that a meeting including members of the Quartet initiative to resolve the Sudanese crisis was held at the headquarters of the US ambassador in Khartoum on Monday.

The initiative first included the US and Saudi Arabia and succeeded in bringing together the military and civil institutions in Sudan before the army’ sudden withdrawal from the political process.

Britain and the UAE later joined the US and the Kingdom, forming the quartet initiative.

The meeting was also attended by members of the international tripartite mechanism, which consists of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), as well as Sudan’s friends, and aims to find solutions to the one-year long stifling political crisis in the country.



Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
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Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo

Human rights defenders rallied on Thursday to support the top UN expert on Palestinian rights, after the United States imposed sanctions on her over what it said was unfair criticism of Israel.

Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese serves as special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

She has long criticized Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing over 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Washington to reverse course.

"Even in the face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures," he said, Reuters reported.

Juerg Lauber, the Swiss permanent representative to the UN who now holds the rotating presidency of the Human Rights Council, said he regretted the sanctions, and called on states to "refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal" against the body's experts.

Mariana Katzarova, who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in Russia, said her concern was that other countries would follow the US lead.

"This is totally unacceptable and opens the gates for any other government to do the same," she told Reuters. "It is an attack on UN system as a whole. Member states must stand up and denounce this."

Russia has rejected Katzarova's mandate and refused to let her enter the country, but it has so far stopped short of publicly adding her to a sanctions list.

Washington has already imposed sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Another court, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel denies that its forces have carried out war crimes or genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

"The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The group's former head, Kenneth Roth, called the US sanctions an attempt "to deter prosecution of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza".

The United States, once one of the most active members of the Human Rights Council, has disengaged from it under President Donald Trump, alleging an anti-Israel bias.