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Egypt, China Stress Importance of an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
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Egypt, China Stress Importance of an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)

Egypt and China on Wednesday agreed on the crucial importance of reaching an urgent and immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and rejected any forced displacement of the Palestinians outside their land.
During talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi affirmed that the implementation of the two-state solution is the fundamental guarantor to restore stability and establish peace and security in the region.
China’s President received the Egyptian President at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where an official reception ceremony was held, according to Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.
The ceremony was followed by extensive talks focusing on ways to cultivate closer bilateral relations.
The two presidents exchanged views on regional and international developments. In this regard, the Chinese president lauded Cairo’s pivotal role and unyielding efforts to reach calm and ensure the delivery of desperately-needed humanitarian aid.
Sisi then emphasized the urgent and imperative need to end the war in Gaza, underscoring the gravity of the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah and their severe humanitarian, security and political consequences.
Egypt repeatedly expresses its concerns about the devastating humanitarian impact of the Israeli military operations in Rafah on over 1.4 million Palestinians and the broader implications for regional peace and stability.
Cairo has called on Israel to open all land crossings between Israel and Gaza.
The Sisi-Xi Jinping summit discussed the situation in the African continent and ways to forge closer cooperation between the two countries. Sisi was keen on affirming that the utmost priority is placed on safeguarding Egypt’s water security.
Since 2011, Ethiopia has been building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile tributary. Addis Ababa claims the dam's primary purpose is electricity production to relieve its acute energy shortage.
But Cairo and Khartoum fear that the GERD will impact their share of the Nile waters. They have been demanding that Ethiopia join them in signing a binding legal agreement that manages the filling and operation of the dam.
Egypt has lately called on Ethiopia to submit impact technical studies of the dam. It also accused Addis Ababa of taking unilateral measures that contribute to tension and instability in the region.
Last December, Egypt announced that four-month of revived negotiations over GERD had failed to yield any results.
In Beijing, Sisi and Xi Jinping witnessed the signing ceremony of a number of cooperation agreements, including the joint development plan of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and strengthening collaboration in technological innovation and IT as well as a multitude of other areas of cooperation.
The Egyptian president's visit to the Chinese capital is his eighth in the last ten years.
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has revealed that the trade exchange between Egypt and China amounted to $13.9 billion in 2023, compared to $16.6 billion in 2022.
In Beijing, Sisi also met on Wednesday the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, Zhao Leji.
The two officials underscored the remarkable momentum the Egyptian-Chinese relations have gained across all fronts, materializing in the form of key cooperation projects and programs between the two countries.
The two sides valued the distinguished relations between their parliaments and resulted in the formation of the Egyptian-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group.
The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress affirmed that his country holds in high esteem its historical relations with Egypt, emphasizing China's keenness to consolidate cooperation.
Leji also valued Egypt's pivotal role both internationally and regionally, particularly its efforts to advance peace and stability in the Middle East, in addition to its steady progress in achieving national development.
Sisi then visited the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital, Beijing, where he laid a wreath on the memorial.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, praised the “historic ties between the Arab countries and China, based on mutual trust and respect.”
This came during his meeting, on Wednesday, with the Chinese Vice President, Han Zheng, on the sidelines of the visit of the AL Secretary-General to Beijing to attend the tenth session of the ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum which will be held on Thursday in the Chinese capital.

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Arab World

Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon Passes Sweeping Amnesty Law for Prisoners, Wanted People

Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)
Lebanese lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to discuss a proposed general amnesty law, the abolition of the death penalty and the salaries of retired members of Lebanon's security forces in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 August 2026. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping and long-awaited amnesty law that should benefit thousands of prisoners and wanted people, in the first legislation of its kind since 1991.

The law, which had been a demand of various political factions and a topic of debate for years, aims to reduce prison overcrowding with many inmates awaiting trial for years.

The office of the country's parliament speaker announced the "approval of a draft law aimed at granting a general amnesty and exceptionally reducing the terms of certain sentences".

Authorities did not immediately announce the number of people that would benefit from the law.

According to Imad al-Hout, one of the lawmakers in favor of the bill, the law reduced the sentences of those facing death and life imprisonment to 17 prison years.

That is equivalent to 12 years and nine months of actual imprisonment in Lebanon, where a prison year is calculated as nine months.

The law also calls for the release of inmates detained for more than 12 prison years without charges as their trial continues.

In its 2025 report, the country's National Human Rights Commission said that prisons had an overcrowding rate of 300 percent, with prison authorities reporting at least 6,268 inmates by the end of March.

But general amnesty was brought back into the limelight after the 2024 fall of longtime Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, as many extremist prisoners in Lebanon were jailed over events linked to the Syrian civil war.

Most of them are accused of crimes that include attacking the Lebanese army, participating in clashes and planning bombings.

Other political forces, including Iran-backed Hezbollah, have been demanding amnesty for their communities.

Thousands of families from the eastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, bastions of Hezbollah and its ally Amal where illicit cannabis cultivation is widespread, have been demanding amnesty for drug-related offenses and car theft for years.

Christian parties meanwhile have pushed for the law to include the families of those who joined an Israeli-backed proxy and fled to Israel after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, fearing reprisals, particularly from Hezbollah and its supporters.

Lebanon previously passed a general amnesty law in the wake of its 1975-90 civil war, allowing former warlords to transition into politics without facing trial for crimes committed during the conflict.

Arab World

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan
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RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

RSF Launches Drone Attacks Across Sudan

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched drone strikes on capital Khartoum and other army-controlled cities on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent, witnesses and an army source said, in what appeared to be their largest coordinated attack in months.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by war between its regular military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The capital Khartoum, which was recaptured by the army last year, has been targeted by drone strikes before but enjoyed relative calm for months.

A source in the army said the RSF attacked the capital, the Kordofan city of El-Obeid, and the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer "with a large number of drones, which our anti-aircraft defenses engaged with".

El-Obeid is located nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Khartoum and around 650 kilometers from Atbara.

An AFP correspondent in the capital reported a drone attack at 5 am (0300 GMT) along with the sound of anti-aircraft missiles from the direction of the army's Wadi Seidna base, just north of the twin city of Omdurman.

In Khartoum North (Bahri), just across the Nile River, two drones hit a mosque and an electricity transformer in the El-Droshab area, according to an eyewitness.

It was not immediately clear if air defenses had shot them down.

Witnesses in the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer -- both also under army control -- gave similar reports of hearing explosions and seeing drones in the sky.

Some 120 kilometers southeast, in the town of Tamboul, civilians were in a "state of fear" after drones appeared above them, a witness told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attacks, including in the Khartoum North mosque which worshippers had recently emptied after dawn prayers.

Across the country, aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed in what the UN calls a "war of atrocities". The conflict has also caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

- Retaliatory strike -

The RSF has seemed to be on the back foot since the army last month pushed them off a key highway connecting Khartoum to El-Obeid, the southern Kordofan region's largest city, which they had tried to seize for months.

Daglo in the aftermath said he would "unleash" his fighters -- already accused of war crimes including genocide -- and his fighters have since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.

Burhan and Daglo, allies until they fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent most of the war in a relative stalemate, unwilling to hold negotiations while vying for a decisive battlefield advantage.

The RSF last year consolidated its hold on the vast western region of Darfur, and has since pushed to seize territory in Kordofan and along the southeastern Ethiopian border.

The army holds the country's center, north and east, and has tried to project an image of a return to normalcy in areas it controls.

But in Khartoum, 2.3 million people have returned from displacement, only to find vast amounts of uncleared war remnants, dilapidated infrastructure and limited electricity and water.

According to an eyewitness, Wednesday's drone attack "caused an explosion in an electricity transformer" in Khartoum North, where over half a million people already live without power.

Even parts of the city that have had more reliable services than Khartoum North have been without power for weeks.

Arab World

US Says New Round of Lebanon-Israel Talks in Rome in September

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
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US Says New Round of Lebanon-Israel Talks in Rome in September

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Chaqra shows destruction in the border village of Houla, and behind it is what is known as the “Abbad Israeli outpost” on August 11, 2026. (AFP)

The United States will sponsor a new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel in early September in Rome, a State Department official announced Tuesday.

"The political track will reconvene in Rome in early September, and conversations will continue in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Washington in the interim," the official said on condition of anonymity. "We feel good about the trajectory."

The United States has been sponsoring talks between Lebanon and Israel aimed at putting an end to hostilities between them, with Beirut seeking Israel's phased withdrawal from the south.

In June, Lebanon and Israel agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones."

Talks last week in Rome were the seventh round since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.

The US official speaking Tuesday gave an update on the last round of talks in Rome.

"The framework is being implemented, the first zones are live, and the working groups have aligned their language, maps, and procedures," the official said.

Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the direct talks between Lebanon and Israel and refuses to surrender its weapons.

Violence in Lebanon has decreased since the Lebanon-Israel deal and the signing in June of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the Middle East war.

But Lebanon has continued to report intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations and demolitions in southern villages.

At the next round of technical talks, the US official said: "Lebanon will present detailed roadmaps for securing new areas as implementation proceeds in the current zones."