CAIRO: The power-sharing agreement reached between Sudan’s military and pro-democracy protesters last week came after the United States and its Arab allies applied intense pressure on both sides amid fears a prolonged crisis could tip the country into civil war, activists and officials said.
The agreement, which raised hopes of a democratic transition following the military overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar Al-Bashir in April, was announced days after the protesters held mass marches through Khartoum and other areas.
But those familiar with the negotiations say the main breakthrough happened at a secret meeting the day before the protests, when diplomats from the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pressed the two sides to accept proposals from the African Union and Ethiopia.
“It was a tense but crucial meeting. It melted the ice,” a leading activist said on condition of anonymity to discuss the back-room negotiations. “The meeting was the cornerstone of Friday’s deal.”
The two sides agreed on a jointly run sovereign council that will rule for a little over three years while elections are organized. A military leader will head the council for the first 21 months followed by a civilian leader for the next 18.
They also agreed on an independent Sudanese investigation into security forces’ deadly crackdown on the protests last month — though it’s unclear if anyone will be held accountable. The military also agreed to restore the Internet after a weekslong blackout.
Much could still go wrong, and last month’s violence erupted at a similarly hopeful moment. But for now the deal appears to be on track, with the two sides expected to formally sign it this week.
Two leading activists, a Sudanese military official and two Egyptian officials described intense US efforts to force a deal after veteran diplomat Donald Booth was appointed special envoy in mid-June. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.
State Department officials declined to comment on US efforts to broker the deal, saying only that Washington welcomes the agreement and commends the AU and Ethiopia for their mediation efforts.
The Arab officials said the US not only ramped up pressure on the military, but also on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which supported the military’s overthrow of Al-Bashir and sided with the generals when the protesters remained in the streets.
Two Egyptian officials with direct knowledge of Booth’s meetings in Cairo last month said the US urged President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to back the AU and Ethiopian proposal and “pressure” Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the ruling military council, to respond positively.
“We received a direct message from the White House: Facilitate a deal between the military and the protesters,” one of the officials said.
They said the same message was conveyed to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, close US allies that had pledged billions of dollars in aid to the military after Al-Bashir’s overthrow.
The two Arab nations were seen as having major influence over Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who has sent Sudanese forces to aid their war in Yemen. Dagalo, known by the nickname “Hemedti,” is seen by many as the most powerful figure on the military council, and his paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led last month’s violent dispersal of the protesters’ main sit-in.
The Sudanese military official says the generals received the same message.
“The Americans demanded a deal as soon as possible. Their message was clear: power-sharing in return for guarantees that nobody from the council will be tried,” he said, referring to the June 3 crackdown. Protesters say security forces killed at least 128 people, while authorities put the death toll at 61, including some security personnel.
The crackdown left protesters in a precarious position, and raised fears that Sudan could share the fate of Syria, Yemen and Libya, which spiraled into civil war after their own popular uprisings.
The US and its allies also put pressure on the protesters, who are represented by a coalition known as the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change. The activists say the US and Arab countries reached out to individual factions, which then threatened to negotiate separately with the military. Protest leaders gave in when it appeared the coalition was at risk of fracturing.
The efforts culminated in a secret meeting on July 29 at the home of a Sudanese businessman that was attended by protest leaders as well as Burhan and Dagalo.
Officials from the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also attended, in a show of unity that pushed the two sides together. By the end of the over three-hour-long meeting, the two sides had agreed to thrash out an agreement within days.
Protest leaders went ahead with the rallies the following day, saying they needed time to prepare people for the agreement, and tens of thousands took to the streets in another show of popular support for a transition to civilian rule. Five days later, on July 5, the two sides announced that they had reached a power-sharing deal.
Sudanese say US pressure was key to reaching transition deal
Sudanese say US pressure was key to reaching transition deal
- The agreement was announced days after the protesters held mass marches throughout Sudan’s main cities
- Sudanese activists and a military official describe intense US efforts to force the deal
Hamas official denies progress in Gaza ceasefire talks
- A senior Hamas official on Wednesday rejected claims of progress in Gaza ceasefire talks
“(Israel) has not yet delivered any new or revised maps regarding military withdrawals from the Gaza Strip,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas political bureau, told AFP, accusing Israel of wanting to “prolong military control” in Gaza for the long term.
Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede
- Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, inciting a panic.
- The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites.
TEL AVIV: Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday in the crush of a crowd at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip, the group said, the first time it has acknowledged deadly violence at its operations. The deaths came as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.
It said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, inciting a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites.
It was also the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its distribution sites, although Palestinian witnesses, health officials and U.N. agencies say hundreds of people have been killed while heading to the hubs to get food.
Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos, witnesses say
Some witnesses said the crowd panicked after receiving messages that no aid would be distributed or would only be distributed later. Others said people became trapped while attempting to move through a turnstile system, which creates a bottleneck.
Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly from tear gas.
The injuries were “not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other,” Al-Najjar said as he carried, with three other men, an injured stranger to a hospital. He said the chaos at the sites is forcing Palestinians to “march towards death.”
“They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us," said Abdullah Aleyat, who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning.
"When they saw people killing each other, they opened the gate and people stepped over each other and suffocated,” Aleyat said, as he stood in a hospital room with some of the injured.
Videos released earlier this year by GHF from an aid distribution showed hundreds of Palestinians jostling for aid, and sprinting towards the sites when they opened.
In other videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, Palestinians seeking access to the sites are pictured crowded between metal fences, as contractors deploy tear gas and stun grenades.
The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private American contractors. Israel troops surround the sites, but the army says they are not in the immediate vicinity.
The United Nations human rights office and Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF.
The ministry and witnesses say most of the deaths have come from Israeli gunfire. The Israeli army says it fires warning shots and only uses live fire if crowds threaten its soldiers.
GHF, an American organization registered in Delaware, was established in February to distribute aid during the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
Across Gaza, strikes kill 41 as Israel opens a new military corridor
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities.
Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a new corridor — the fourth — that bisects Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they said is a pressure tactic against Hamas. In the past, these narrow strips of land have been a serious hurdle during ceasefire negotiations, as Israel has said it wants to maintain military presence in them.
Negotiations in the Qatari capital between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill, after 21 months of war, which began with the militants' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.
Clashes resume in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, Israel strikes defense ministry in Damascus
- Israel strikes near the defense ministry in Damascus
DAMASCUS: The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus.
The strike came as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed.
Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces since the clashes erupted, saying that it is acting to protect the Druze.
Clashes raged in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Wednesday after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed and Israel threatened to escalate its involvement in support of the Druze religious minority.
Syria’s Defense Ministry blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province.
“Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes,” the statement said.
A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syria's longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the country's new rulers have struggled to consolidate control over the territory.
The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities. The fears of minorities increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.
Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas
The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.
Government forces that intervened to restore order have also clashed with the Druze, while reports have surfaced of members of the security forces carrying out extrajudicial killings, looting and burning civilian homes.
No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces.
The observatory said at least 21 people were killed in “field executions.”
Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces since the clashes erupted, saying that it is acting to protect the Druze.
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Israel threatens to scale up its intervention
In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military. In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the country's new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others have remained suspicious of the authorities in Damascus and pushed for an autonomous Druze region.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday night that Israel has “a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israel’s border" and has "an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals.”
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since Assad's fall, saying it doesn’t want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel
- The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested
DUBAI: A foreign tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel, the chief justice of Hormozgan province said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.
“During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying 2 million liters of smuggled fuel,” Hormozgan’s Chief Justice Mojtaba Ghahremani said, according to the report.
The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested and that a judicial case was opened at the Jask county prosecutor’s office.
There was no additional information regarding the name of the tanker or the flag to which it is registered.
Iran, which has some of the world’s lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
“The actions of fuel smugglers, who in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency,” Ghahremani said, according to the report.
Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged
- Tuesday’s announcement follows deadly sectarian clashes between Druze factions and Sunni Bedouin tribes that killed over 30 people
- That’s according to Syria’s Interior Ministry. However, fighting and allegations of civilian abuses by security forces continue
BUSRA AL-HARIR: Syria ‘s defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there. Neighboring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces, saying it was protecting the Druze minority.
The latest escalation under Syria’s new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.
Syrian government forces, sent to restore order on Monday, also clashed with Druze armed groups.
A ceasefire announcement
On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said an agreement was struck with the city’s “notables and dignitaries” and that government forces would “respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.”
However, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that security forces had committed violations against civilians.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Tuesday that 166 people had been killed since Sunday, including five women and two children.
Among them were 21 people killed in “field executions” by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians and also cited reports of members of the security forces looting and setting homes on fire.
Syrian interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said in a statement that he had tasked authorities with “taking immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position.”
Associated Press journalists in Sweida province saw forces at a government checkpoint searching cars and confiscating suspected stolen goods from both civilians and soldiers.
Israel’s involvement draws pushback
Israeli airstrikes targeted government forces’ convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in other areas of southern Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sought to “prevent the Syrian regime from harming” the Druze religious minority “and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.” In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
Meanwhile, Israeli Cabinet member and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli called on X for Al-Sharaa to be “eliminated without delay.”
A soldier’s story
Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, of the Interior Ministry forces, was being treated for shrapnel wounds at a local hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy.
‘We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us,” he said, adding that there were “many casualties.”
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed “several innocent civilians” as well as soldiers, and called them “a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and external interference” in Syria’s internal matters.
It said the Syrian state is committed to protecting the Druze, “who form an integral part of the national identity and united Syrian social fabric.”
Suspicion over Syria’s new government
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since Al-Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it doesn’t want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities. One of the main Druze spiritual leaders later released a video statement retracting the call.
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in the video that the initial Druze leaders’ statement had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but that “they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.”
“We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,” he claimed, without offering evidence.
Some videos on social media showed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some cases, forcibly shaving men’s moustaches.
Sectarian and revenge attacks
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Since Assad’s fall, clashes have broken out several times between forces loyal to the new Syrian government and Druze fighters.
The latest fighting has raised fears of more sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government forces by Assad loyalists in another part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but no findings have been made public.
The videos and reports of soldiers’ violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighboring Lebanon, northern Israel and in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, where the Israeli military said dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory.
The violence drew international concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called the violence “worrisome on all sides” in a post on.
“We are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,” he said.
