Sudan army leader says won’t join peace talks, ‘will fight for 100 years’

This handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on August 24, 2024, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan giving a press conference in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state. (AFP)
This handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on August 24, 2024, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan giving a press conference in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state. (AFP)
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Updated 25 August 2024
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Sudan army leader says won’t join peace talks, ‘will fight for 100 years’

Sudan army leader says won’t join peace talks, ‘will fight for 100 years’
  • The brutal conflict has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died. More than 25 million across Sudan — more than half its population — face acute hunger

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudan’s de facto ruler, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said Saturday his government would not join peace talks with rival paramilitaries in Switzerland, vowing instead to “fight for 100 years.”
“We will not go to Geneva... we will fight for 100 years,” Burhan, whose troops have been battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for over 16 months, told reporters in Port Sudan.
The United States opened talks in Switzerland on August 14 aimed at easing the human suffering and achieving a lasting ceasefire.
While an RSF delegation showed up, the Sudanese armed forces were unhappy with the format and did not attend, though they were in telephone contact with the mediators.
The talks were co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations completing the so-called Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan Group (ALPS).
They wrapped up on Friday without a ceasefire but with progress on securing aid access on two key routes into the country, which is gripped by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The brutal conflict has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died. More than 25 million across Sudan — more than half its population — face acute hunger.
 

 


UN warns Lebanon could face same ‘spiral of doom’ as Gaza

UN warns Lebanon could face same ‘spiral of doom’ as Gaza
Updated 29 sec ago
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UN warns Lebanon could face same ‘spiral of doom’ as Gaza

UN warns Lebanon could face same ‘spiral of doom’ as Gaza
“We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for WFP
“It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom,”

GENEVA: UN humanitarian officials called Tuesday for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiralling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.
“We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for the United Nations’ World Food Programme.
Speaking from Beirut, he told a press briefing in Geneva that he spent the first half of the year coordinating WFP’s operations in Gaza before taking the helm of its Lebanon office, and was deeply concerned by the similarities.
“It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom... We shouldn’t allow that to happen,” he said.
Israel’s war in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel, has killed more than 41,900 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has said the figures are reliable.
The October 7 attack left 1,206 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
The resulting conflict has spilled into Lebanon, with intensifying airstrikes and Israeli troops battling Hezbollah militants on the ground.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 1,100 people and displaced upwards of a million in less than two weeks.
Hollingworth said many people were fleeing because they “have watched over the last year as the war in Gaza has continued and neighborhoods have been decimated and pounded, and that is deep in their gut, in their hearts, in their minds.”
James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, warned that “the commonalities are unfortunately absolutely there to be seen, whether it is displacement on the ground, impact upon children or language being used ... (to) soften the realities on the ground.”
“We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza,” added Jeremy Laurence of the UN rights office.
“The devastation is beyond belief for all people in Lebanon as it is in Gaza. We can’t let this happen again.”
Humanitarians are working to address the soaring needs, but Hollingworth insisted that what was needed was to “de-escalate.”
While WFP is currently able to reach around 150,000 people a day, they “need to be reaching, at this point, almost a million people per day,” he said.
At the same time, he highlighted that 1,900 hectares of agricultural land had been burned in southern Lebanon over the past year, mainly in the past couple of weeks, while 12,000 hectares of productive farmland had been abandoned.
“We have very significant needs moving forward,” Hollingworth said, lamenting that the WFP was facing a $115 million funding gap to cover the towering needs over the next three months.
The World Health Organization meanwhile said it had registered 16 attacks on health care in Lebanon since mid-September, leaving 65 health care workers dead and 40 injured.
At the same time five of the country’s hospitals were now non-functional and four were only partially functional, Ian Clarke, WHO’s deputy incident manager in the country, told reporters, speaking via video link from Beirut.
Nearly 100 primary health care facilities had also been forced to close, he said, warning that with limited access to care, “we are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks.”

Turkiye says exports to Palestinians surge after halting trade with Israel over Gaza war

Turkiye says exports to Palestinians surge after halting trade with Israel over Gaza war
Updated 7 min 20 sec ago
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Turkiye says exports to Palestinians surge after halting trade with Israel over Gaza war

Turkiye says exports to Palestinians surge after halting trade with Israel over Gaza war
  • The 526 percent rise in exports occurred largely after the ban went into effect
  • Turkish opposition lawmaker Mustafa Yeneroglu on Monday submitted questions to parliament about the sharp increase in exports to Palestinian areas

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s exports to Palestinian territories leapt sixfold in the first nine months of the year to $571.2 million, data showed on Tuesday, five months after the country halted trade with Israel in protest over its war in Gaza.
The 526 percent rise in exports occurred largely after the ban went into effect. In the first four months of the year, Turkish exports to Palestinian territories were up 35 percent to $49.4 million, according to data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).
Turkish opposition lawmaker Mustafa Yeneroglu on Monday submitted questions to parliament about the sharp increase in exports to Palestinian areas and ongoing ship traffic from Turkiye to Israel, despite the trade ban.
Yeneroglu asked Trade Minister Omer Bolat to respond to local media reports that trade with Israel was quietly continuing through Palestinian companies, with shipping documents describing goods as going to Palestinian territories when they were actually going to Israel.
Asked for comment by Reuters, the Trade Ministry pointed to previous statements on the issue. On Sept. 18, it denied trade with Israel was continuing, reiterating that it ended on May 2.
It said Palestinian authorities had declared several times that Turkish goods were used exclusively in Palestinian areas.
These territories encompass the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Arab East Jerusalem.
The trade ministry imposed export restrictions on 54 categories of products to Israel in April before completely halting exports and imports in early May.
At the time, Turkiye said it would not resume trade with Israel, worth $7 billion a year, until a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid were secured in Gaza, becoming the first of Israel’s key commercial partners to take such a step.
Israel launched a devastating war against Hamas in Gaza a year ago after the Palestinian Islamist group’s deadly cross-border attack.


Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure

Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure
Updated 08 October 2024
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Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure

Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure
  • Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy
  • On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran

TEHRAN: Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against attacking any of its infrastructure amid fears of a possible Israeli assault on oil or nuclear sites following Iran’s missile barrage last week.
“Any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response,” state television quoted Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying.
He spoke after Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy, its second on the country in six months.
On Monday, an official statement quoted Araghchi as saying Iran did not seek war in the region.
On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran, one of the world’s top 10 producers of crude.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Rassul Sanairad warned Israel on Sunday any attack on nuclear or energy sites would cross a “red line.”
The Fars news agency quoted him as saying following the Israeli threat: “Some political leaders have spoken of a possible change in Iran’s nuclear policy.”
In 2022, after an official said Iran had the technical capability to produce a nuclear weapon, the country stressed there had been no change in its nuclear ambitions.
Last year Iran slowed the pace of its uranium enrichment, but then in late 2023 accelerated the production of 60 percent enriched uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use.
Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting its activities are entirely peaceful.
Any attack on Iranian nuclear sites “would have an impact on the kind of response by Iran,” General Sanairad said.
Tehran says its attack on Israel, when some 200 missiles were fired, was a response to the death in a Beirut air strike of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, but Israel has not commented.


Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17

Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17
Updated 08 October 2024
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17

Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17
  • The bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital
  • Victims included children

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the center of the territory, as Israel’s military targets Hamas positions.
“The civil defense teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.
Medics at Al-Awda confirmed the toll.
Bassal earlier told AFP that several air strikes rocked central and northern parts of Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday.
Witnesses and rescuers also said Israeli military operations continued in Jabaliya, where troops launched a ground assault in recent days.
Over the past day, Israeli forces killed “approximately 20 terrorists” in air strikes in Jabaliya, the military said in a statement, adding troops also dismantled a weapons storage facility in the area.
On Sunday, the military said troops had encircled Jabaliya in response to indications Hamas was regrouping there despite a year of strikes and hard fighting.
In recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants rebuilding.
In a separate statement, the military announced it had killed three Hamas militants who had participated in the October 7 attack.
They were killed in an air strike on September 30 that struck a school in Daraj Tuffah area.


Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief

Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief
Updated 08 October 2024
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Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief

Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief
  • Naim Qasim says the group supports ceasefire efforts
  • Hezbollah’s deputy chief vows to displace settlers from northern Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qasim said in a televised speech on Tuesday that the Iran-backed group’s capabilities were still intact and fighters were pushing back ground incursions into Lebanon despite Israel’s claims and “painful blows.” 
Vowing to continue the “resistance”, Qasim said more Israelis will be displaced from nothern Israel as the militant group expands its rocket fire.
“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” he added in his address the day after the first year anniversary of the October 7 attacks which prompted the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and later Lebanon killing thousands and displacing millions. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines."
He said, “Israel said it will return its settlers to northern Israel, but we vow to displace thousands more.” 
Qasim noted that the displacement of one million Lebanese people amid the escalating violence was a “burden and sacrifice for the resistance.” 
“The enemy thinks that it will weaken us by targeting innocent civilians, so the only solution for us is to resist and persist,” said Qasim. 

He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.

Support for ceasefire efforts
Qasim stressed that the group supported the efforts of Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally - to secure a ceasefire. 

“In any case, after the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” Qasim said.
“If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide,” he added.

While the group has replaced its slain commanders, Qassim said electing a new secretary general to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last month, had been challenging due to the war, but “we will announce it once it has been done.” 
“No positions are vacant. All our roles are filled,” said the leader. 
He noted that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel was a war about who cries first, and the militant group would not cry first.
Praising Iran’s support to the “resistance”, Qasim accused the US of being an essential partner of the crimes in Gaza. 

“The battle is not a battle for Iranian influence, but to help the Palestinians,” said Qasim.
He noted that Lebanon had always been a target for Israel even before its support for Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to want to form a new Middle East. “We were always the target but the time had never come,” he said. 
“But for 11 months, our rockets have drained Israel,” said Qasim as he vowed victory. 
The regional tensions triggered a year ago by Palestinian armed group Hamas’ attack on southern Israel have spiraled to a series of Israeli operations by land and air over Lebanon and direct attacks by Iran onto Israeli military installations.
Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against any attacks on the Islamic Republic, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles on it, putting the Middle East on edge.