Sudan: Hamedti Says Ready for Negotiations with Burhan if Fighting Stops

File photo: Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, then deputy head of the military council, salutes during a rally, in Galawee, northern Sudan, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo, File)
File photo: Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, then deputy head of the military council, salutes during a rally, in Galawee, northern Sudan, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo, File)
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Sudan: Hamedti Says Ready for Negotiations with Burhan if Fighting Stops

File photo: Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, then deputy head of the military council, salutes during a rally, in Galawee, northern Sudan, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo, File)
File photo: Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, then deputy head of the military council, salutes during a rally, in Galawee, northern Sudan, June 15, 2019. (AP Photo, File)

Leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said on Saturday that he is ready for negotiations with army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on condition that fighting stops between the rival sides.

In remarks to BBC on Saturday, Dagalo, better known by his nickname Hamedti, said that to have negotiations with Burhan there are conditions. "Cease hostilities. After that we can have negotiations,” he said.

He added: "I am looking forward to having a civilian government today - before tomorrow, a fully civilian government. This is my principle.”

Two days ago, al-Burhan agreed in principle to meet Hamedti, but he told local media on Friday that he refuses to sit with Hamedti describing his forces as "rebellious."

Asked whether a truce could persist should the two generals reach one, Hamedti said: “We have called for a truce since day one of the war. We immediately opened humanitarian corridors inside the areas controlled by our forces. We started with a truce from our side.”

On Friday, fighting continued in Khartoum and in the Darfur region in western Sudan, despite the extension of the truce.

The conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese armed forces has been going on since mid-April. It claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

Around 574 people have been killed since the fighting began, in addition to 74 others who died early this week.



Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.