Peace Partners in Sudan Urged to Speed Up Govt Formation

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (AP)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (AP)
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Peace Partners in Sudan Urged to Speed Up Govt Formation

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (AP)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (AP)

The ruling coalition and peace partners in Sudan have exceeded the time limit stipulated in the Juba Peace Agreement to form the new government by two weeks.

This delay has prompted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to call on all parties to speed up the government formation and avoid a political vacuum in the country.

He urged the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) to scrutinize the candidates swiftly while adhering to the standards of competence, qualification, experience, integrity, and observance of the equitable participation of women.

“The political vacuum caused by the delay in announcing the new government has contributed to the deterioration and the exacerbation of the living, economic and security conditions.”

Hamdok’s remarks were in reference to the renewed tribal conflicts in Darfur, which led to dozens of casualties.

Under the peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and several armed groups affiliated with the SRF in Oct. 2020, both sides will share power.

It stipulates that the armed movements will be granted 25 percent representation in the cabinet, two portfolios (defense and interior) to be headed by the military component, 17 seats for the FFC, and three seats were agreed to be allocated to the Transitional Sovereign Council, while the Transitional Legislative Council was granted 75 percent representation.

Therefore, the new cabinet is expected to include 26 ministries instead of 20.

Meanwhile, leaders from the ruling FFC coalition said that during last week’s meeting with Hamdok, parties agreed to form the government one week, given the challenges faced by the country.

Leading member in the Unionist Alliance Jaafar Hassan, for his part, strongly denied that the FFC was behind the delay in the new government formation.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that his alliance had already completed naming its candidates for the ministries and was waiting for approval by its Central Council.

Hassan pointed out that FFC was waiting for the National Umma Party’s list of candidates to present a unified list for the Premier to choose among these candidates, according to the agreed upon criteria.

Cabinet sources have revealed that the Umma Party is demanding six of the 17 FFC seats.



Israel Says Rockets Fired from Syria for the First Time Since Bashar Assad’s Fall 

An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Says Rockets Fired from Syria for the First Time Since Bashar Assad’s Fall 

An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israeli army said two rockets were fired from Syria into open areas in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, marking the first time a strike has been launched toward Israel from Syrian territory since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Syrian state media reported that Israel shelled the western countryside of Syria’s Daraa province after the rocket launch. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, also reported Israeli airstrikes that caused “violent explosions” around the city of Quneitra and in the Daraa countryside.

A group calling itself the Mohammed Deif Brigades — named after a Hamas military leader killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza last year — claimed the attack in a post on Telegram. The group first surfaced on social media a few days before.

“Until now, it’s just a Telegram channel. It’s not known if it is a real group,” said Ahmed Aba Zeid, a Syrian researcher who has studied armed factions in southern Syria.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Israel considers “the Syrian president directly responsible for every threat and firing toward the State of Israel” and warned of a “full response” to come “as soon as possible.”

Israel has been suspicious of the former opposition fighters who formed the new Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syria and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory since Assad’s fall.

Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run TV channel that it has “not yet verified the accuracy” of the reports of strikes launched from Syria toward Israel.

“We affirm that Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region,” the statement said. It condemned the Israeli shelling, which it said had resulted in “significant human and material losses.”

The US, which has warmed to al-Sharaa's government and recently moved to lift some sanctions previously imposed on Syria, has pushed for Syria to normalize relations with Israel.

In a recent interview with the Jewish Journal, al-Sharaa said he wants to see a return to a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two countries but stopped short of proposing immediate normalization, saying that “peace must be earned through mutual respect, not fear.”