عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

UN Envoy Outlines Priorities for Solution to Sudan Conflict

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), Volker Perthes. (Reuters)
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), Volker Perthes. (Reuters)
TT
TT

UN Envoy Outlines Priorities for Solution to Sudan Conflict

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), Volker Perthes. (Reuters)
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), Volker Perthes. (Reuters)

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITMAS), Volker Perthes warned that there is a potential ethnicization of the fighting between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which could prolong the conflict.

Explosions and artillery shelling were heard in Khartoum a few hours before the ceasefire agreement entered into force. However, the Sudanese army and the RSF affirmed their commitment to facilitating the passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in conflict areas.

Eyewitnesses told Asharq Al-Awsat that clashes erupted between the two parties in Omdurman.

The UN Security Council held a meeting to discuss the Secretary-General's latest report on the situation in Sudan and the activities of the UNITMAS.

The sessions included a briefing from Perthes, who stated that the fighting between the army, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Lieutenant General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, showed no signs of slowing down, despite the repeated declarations of a ceasefire on both sides.

Perthes added that civilians paid a heavy price for this senseless violence, as it is estimated that more than 700 people, including 190 children, have been killed and 6,000 others injured since the fighting began on April 15.

In addition, over a million persons have been displaced from their areas, including more than 840,000 who sought refuge in rural areas and other states, while another 250,000 crossed the Sudanese borders.

Laws and norms of war

Perthes said that in Khartoum, Darfur, and elsewhere, the warring parties continue to fight without regard for the laws and norms of war.

"The frequently reported use of health facilities as military positions is unacceptable. I am appalled by the reports of sexual violence against women and girls, including allegations of rape in Khartoum and Darfur," he added.

He stressed that intimidation, harassment, and enforced disappearance are matters of great concern, pointing to the attack on UN facilities, including UNITMAS.

He expressed concern about reports of death threats against activists and political leaders, arrest of volunteers, and the intimidation of journalists.

Perthes discussed the clashes in El Geneina and West Darfur state where "ethnic violence escalated," and tribal militias joined the fighting.

He also cited reports of disturbing signs of tribal mobilization in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile region.

"The fighting throughout Sudan has resulted in serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law and undermined the protection of civilians. These violations must be investigated, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice."

Sudan's destruction

The envoy warned that their decision is destroying Sudan, and they can end it, asserting that the UN and its international partners had tried to prevent the situation from escalating.

He recalled "sounding the alarm" before the Security Council last March, the tripartite mechanisms, and the Quartet's efforts with the military leaders to calm the situation.

Moreover, Perthes regretted the hostilities that forced the UNITMAS mission to temporarily relocate its employees to Port Sudan and outside Sudan, asserting that it does not mean the UN mission has abandoned the people.

"We remain firmly committed to four immediate priorities: achieving a stable ceasefire with a monitoring mechanism, preventing the escalation or ethnicization of the conflict, protection of civilians and provision of humanitarian relief, and preparing, for when the time is ripe, a fresh political process with the participation of a broad array of civil and political actors, including women," he declared.

Saudi and US mediation

Furthermore, Perthes welcomed the "Saudi and US mediation that led to the signing of a Declaration of Commitments on May 11, an agreement on a seven-day ceasefire, and humanitarian arrangements on May 20."

He stressed the importance of this step which includes a commitment to reaching a stable ceasefire with a monitoring mechanism.

The UNITAMS is ready to support such a mechanism, said Perthes, stressing that the Sudanese civil society plays a decisive role in calling for peace.

He urged both sides to seriously engage in talks in good faith to advance a genuine ceasefire with a robust monitoring mechanism, stressing that at the end of the day, only a credible, civilian-led transition can lead to a lasting peace in Sudan.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

‘Emirate of Hebron’ Raised Again According to Smotrich’s Arrangements

The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
TT
TT

‘Emirate of Hebron’ Raised Again According to Smotrich’s Arrangements

The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
The Israeli military blocks the road as Palestinians protest against settlement near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

The establishment of the “Emirate of Hebron” has been raised again after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday that he had annulled the Hebron Accords and seized planning and construction powers at a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank from Palestinian authorities.

The idea of “annulment” was already put forward more than a year ago but rejected by Palestinians.

The 1997 agreement gave the Palestinian Hebron municipality authority to construct and plan in the H2 area of the city, despite it being under Israeli military control.

And in what appears to be a coordinated plan, while Smotrich annulled the Hebron Accords, Likud Minister Nir Barkat brought five Hebron residents to a Knesset hearing to promote a government-backed plan to secede from the Palestinian Authority, establish an independent emirate and join regional normalization agreements.

“The dispute came to a head during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing this week, when Barkat brought five Hebron residents promoting the initiative,” Haaretz newspaper wrote on Friday.

“The group argued they could assume responsibility for their local areas and maintain order through a model of tribal leadership,” it added.

The newspaper explained that last year, five residents of Hebron had proposed breaking away from the Palestinian Authority in an initiative for an “Emirate of Hebron.”

According to a 2025 report in The Wall Street Journal, the group sent a letter to Barkat in which they expressed support for Israel as a Jewish state and proposed the creation of a joint Israeli-West Bank industrial zone near the separation barrier.

Haaretz said Barkat presented the five Hebron residents as those who are willing to accept responsibility for the areas where their extended families live, break away from the Palestinian Authority, and establish a system of local tribal leadership.

During the discussion, the sheikhs claimed that they had the power to restore order and protect their residents.

The five sheikhs, the newspaper wrote, presented far-reaching demands to the Israeli army and security forces during the discussion. They demanded that soldiers refrain from activities against them and their people, reduce arrests, and stop searching for weapons on their families' lands.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also attended the discussion, expressing full support for the initiative. According to Chikli, the emirate model is “the future of the West Bank” and the most significant alternative offered to the Palestinian Authority so far.

Chikli argued that the local tribal structure may constitute a more stable basis for a Palestinian government than the PA's institutions, which the Israeli government seeks to dismantle.

The 1997 Hebron Agreement divided the city of Hebron into two zones: H1, under Palestinian control and H2, under Israeli security control.

Palestinians controlled planning and construction in the entire city, including the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the adjoining Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque.

Hebron's Old City is recognized as a Palestinian World Heritage site.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers live among tens of thousands of Palestinians in parts of the ancient city that are under Israeli security control.

Annulling the Hebron Accords means Israelis would again control the H2 area of the city, including religious affairs.

Smotrich said: “This is much more than a planning step, it is a step... of practical sovereignty, of governance.”

The Palestinian mayor of Hebron, Yousef Al-Jabari, called Smotrich's announcement a “racist decision aimed at stripping the Hebron municipality of its powers.”

He told Israel’s i24NEWS channel that the Palestinian people remain entirely capable of choosing their own leadership, despite active Israeli interference.

“We have a municipality that democratically elects its president and members. Hebron is ruled by Palestinian legitimacy and no one else will rule it,” he added.

On Friday, Haaretz said the Israeli military has rejected these estimates outright. Security sources who spoke to Haaretz said most of the figures presented as influential lack public status in Hebron, and are not recognized as the city's power centers.

Other sources warned that the very fact of holding the Knesset debate and granting official legitimacy to a model of tribal leadership supported by Israel could create the impression that Israel is trying to dismantle the existing Palestinian leadership by appointing cronies from collaborating clans.

Such a move, they warn, could actually strengthen support for extremist factions and deepen instability in the West Bank.

“When ministers bring the sheikhs to the Knesset, give them an official platform and present them as a governmental alternative to the Palestinian Authority, it can no longer be treated as just a public relations exercise – it has direct consequences on the ground,” said a security source who spoke to Haaretz.

Arab World

Syria’s Grand Mufti Warns Against Acts that Could Fuel Strife

A Syrian woman holds pictures on April 24, 2026, of relatives killed by former regime forces in the 2013 Tadamon massacre south of Damascus. (EPA)
A Syrian woman holds pictures on April 24, 2026, of relatives killed by former regime forces in the 2013 Tadamon massacre south of Damascus. (EPA)
TT
TT

Syria’s Grand Mufti Warns Against Acts that Could Fuel Strife

A Syrian woman holds pictures on April 24, 2026, of relatives killed by former regime forces in the 2013 Tadamon massacre south of Damascus. (EPA)
A Syrian woman holds pictures on April 24, 2026, of relatives killed by former regime forces in the 2013 Tadamon massacre south of Damascus. (EPA)

Syria’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Osama al-Rifai has called for calm after days of protests demanding the prosecution of supporters of the former regime, warning citizens against “undisciplined actions that could open the door to strife,” the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

Rifai said Friday that accountability for criminals must be left to the state and its relevant agencies. He said demands for justice and for holding those involved in violations to account were “a legitimate right,” but must be pursued through the state and the law, not through unorganized individual or collective action.

“What the Syrian people endured over 60 years of injustice and suffering because of the practices of the defunct regime and its loyalists requires wise conduct today, far from strife,” SANA quoted him as saying.

He said the responsibility for applying the law and holding suspects accountable rests with the relevant state institutions, urging people to trust judicial and official procedures rather than resorting to individual acts that could have dangerous repercussions for social security.

AFP reported that dozens of Syrians joined a protest overnight Tuesday into Wednesday in which shops and cars were vandalized in a Damascus neighborhood. Protesters demanded that loyalists of the former rule be held to account, part of wider mobilizations that began in several areas and prompted the authorities to warn against turning to “revenge.”

Neighborhoods seen as supportive of the former regime in several areas, including Aleppo and Idlib, have seen similar protests in recent days. Demonstrators called for the trial of those they described as “shabiha” and “remnants of the regime,” terms used for loyalists of the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad.

Residents said the protests included attacks on private property, fueling tensions and fears of acts outside the law as the authorities work to launch a transitional justice process after years of war, AFP reported.

Videos on social media showed dozens of people moving through the Mezzeh 86 neighborhood, which had a mostly Alawite population. Shops and cars were attacked and chants were directed against residents.

A similar demonstration took place outside the nearby Great Mezzeh Mosque, demanding the expulsion of “shabiha,” before security forces deployed to control the situation and asked residents to stay in their homes.

The Ash al-Warwar neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus, which also has a mostly Alawite population, saw a similar protest on Monday night, an AFP photographer reported.

Leaflets have spread in several provinces in recent days, giving loyalists of the former rule the choice between leaving the country or staying in their homes “awaiting accountability.”

The first such protest began last week in Kafr Aweed in rural Idlib, in the northwest of the country.

The protests came despite the authorities starting trials of former security and military officials from the previous rule, and announcing the arrest of about 6,000 people, including soldiers, officers and loyalists linked to the former rule. The authorities are trying to contain the protests, which have raised concerns among rights advocates.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said last week, while receiving a delegation from Damascus, that “it is important that transitional justice not be used as a pretext for revenge or as a tool for domination,” warning that otherwise “we would be confronting one injustice with another.”

Arrests over the 2020 strike on Jabal al-Duwaila camp

In a related development, SANA said internal security units in Idlib province arrested Issa Ghannam and Fadi Maarouf on suspicion of leaking the coordinates of an opposition camp in Jabal al-Duwaila in the city of Kafr Takharim, Idlib province, in 2020.

The agency quoted the Interior Ministry as saying investigations showed that “Fadi Maarouf, known as Abu Jahl, sent the site’s coordinates to Issa Ghannam, who in turn transferred them to Brigadier General Abdulrahman Najm, head of the State Security branch under the defunct regime. The camp was then hit by direct air strikes during a meeting of its members, causing more than 100 deaths and injuries.”

The Interior Ministry statement did not say which faction the targeted camp belonged to or who carried out the strike.

Reports at the time said Russian warplanes bombed a parade by fighters at a Faylaq al-Sham camp, affiliated with the National Front for Liberation, in al-Duwaila in the Kafr Takharim area near the Turkish border, on Oct. 26, 2020, causing dozens of deaths and injuries.

Arab World

‘Ruqaya Broke Iraqis’ Hearts’: Halabja Mourns Karbala Girl

Iraqi girl Ruqaya, who died at a tourist resort in northern Iraq (photo circulated on social media)
Iraqi girl Ruqaya, who died at a tourist resort in northern Iraq (photo circulated on social media)
TT
TT

‘Ruqaya Broke Iraqis’ Hearts’: Halabja Mourns Karbala Girl

Iraqi girl Ruqaya, who died at a tourist resort in northern Iraq (photo circulated on social media)
Iraqi girl Ruqaya, who died at a tourist resort in northern Iraq (photo circulated on social media)

After nine days of searching and waiting, the body of 11-year-old Iraqi girl Ruqaya was found in a valley in the Ahmad Awa tourist area of northern Halabja province, following a drowning incident that drew widespread sympathy across Iraq and prompted officials to call for tighter safety measures at tourist sites near waterways.

Ruqaya was buried in her hometown of Karbala on Friday after a farewell ceremony in Halabja province, where hundreds of residents lined the roads to bid her farewell, carrying flowers, according to circulated video footage. One mourner said the child’s farewell had broken their hearts.

Halabja Civil Defense Director Abidin Abdulrahman said rescue teams, divers and volunteers found the girl’s body on Wednesday after intensive and continuous search operations involving specialized teams and dozens of volunteers from different areas.

The incident dates back to June 9, when Ruqaya, a resident of Karbala, was on a family vacation at the Ahmad Awa resort, one of Halabja province’s most prominent natural sites. While she was near the Zalm spring, she fell into the water before strong currents swept her away and she disappeared from view.

Local authorities launched wide search operations immediately after the incident, scouring the valley and surrounding areas with the participation of civil defense teams, specialized divers and volunteers from Halabja, Hawraman, Shahrizor and other areas, in an effort to find the child.

Local officials said the mountainous nature of the area, the large number of rocks and the force of the water flow made the search difficult. The operations continued for more than a week amid wide public and media attention.

The discovery of the body triggered grief in Iraq, where the girl’s story had become a matter of public concern in recent days and was widely followed by media outlets and social media platforms.

After the body was found, the funeral convoy set off from Halabja province toward Karbala, with broad official and public participation. Hundreds of citizens lined the roads in several cities and towns in Sulaymaniyah province to bid farewell to the child and show solidarity with her family.

Although initial arrangements called for the body to be taken directly to Karbala on Thursday morning, residents of Khormal district insisted that the convoy pass through their town so they could take a final look at the child whose search they had followed over the previous days.

Video footage showed large numbers of residents gathering in Khormal and Sayid Sadiq, carrying flowers and standing on both sides of the road as the funeral convoy passed, reflecting the scale of public reaction to the incident.

A group of ambulance volunteers in Sulaymaniyah took charge of transporting the body to Karbala, while a number of volunteers accompanied the body on the long journey to support the family and take part in the mourning ceremonies.

The body arrived in Karbala on Thursday, accompanied by an official delegation from Halabja province, including Halabja district commissioner Simko Salar and Civil Defense Director Abidin Abdulrahman.

The convoy stopped at the forensic medicine department to complete legal procedures for issuing the death certificate before the body was taken to Jannat Karbala cemetery.

Local officials, social figures, members of the child’s family and hundreds of citizens took part in the funeral, which ended with her burial at the cemetery south of the city.

In the first official response after the body was found, Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani offered condolences to the girl’s family and thanked the people of Halabja province and the Hawraman area, as well as the volunteer teams that took part in the search.

Barzani said in a statement that the incident required stricter safety measures and instructions at tourist sites, especially areas located near rivers, dams and water sources, in order to reduce the risk of similar incidents recurring.

Residents of Halabja place flowers on the ambulance carrying Ruqaya's body (X)

Safety measures

Karbala Governor Nassif Jassim al-Khattabi said he planned to visit Halabja province in the coming days to thank its officials and residents for what he described as the humanitarian position they had shown toward the child’s family.

Khattabi said in a statement that the solidarity that accompanied the search operations, the discovery of the body and the funeral procession “embodies the highest meanings of brotherhood and national unity,” adding that such positions would remain deeply appreciated by the people of Karbala province.

Ahmad Awa is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Kurdistan Region, attracting thousands of visitors each year from various Iraqi provinces, especially during spring and summer, because of its mountainous landscape and water springs.

Ruqaya’s death has revived public and official calls for a review of safety measures at natural and tourist sites that draw large crowds during holiday seasons, especially in areas with rough terrain or fast-moving waterways.