UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council on Monday for its support to help protect civilians in war-torn Sudan, but said conditions are not right for deployment of a UN force.
“The people of Sudan are living through a nightmare of violence — with thousands of civilians killed, and countless others facing unspeakable atrocities, including widespread rape and sexual assaults,” Guterres told the 15-member council.
War erupted in mid-April 2023 from a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, and triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis.
“Sudan is, once again, rapidly becoming a nightmare of mass ethnic violence,” Guterres said, referring to a conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region about 20 years ago that led to the International Criminal Court charging former Sudanese leaders with genocide and crimes against humanity.
The current war has produced waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF. The RSF killed at least 124 people in a village in El Gezira State on Friday, activists said, in one of the conflict’s deadliest incidents.
The RSF has previously denied harming civilians in Sudan and attributed the activity to rogue actors.
Guterres acknowledged calls by Sudanese and human-rights groups for stepped-up measures to protect civilians, including the possible deployment of some form of impartial force, saying they reflected “the gravity and urgency of the situation.”
“At present, the conditions do not exist for the successful deployment of a United Nations force to protect civilians in Sudan,” he told the council, but added he was ready to discuss other ways to reduce violence and protect civilians.
“This may require new approaches that are adapted to the challenging circumstances of the conflict,” Guterres said.
Aid access
The UN says nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — need aid as famine has taken hold in displacement camps and 11 million people have fled their homes. Nearly three million of those people have left for other countries.
“This is not just a matter of insufficient funding. Millions are going hungry because of access,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council.
Thomas-Greenfield said Washington was alarmed that instead of facilitating aid, the Sudanese authorities “continue to undermine, intimidate, and target humanitarian officials.” She said they need to expand and streamline humanitarian movements.
“They also need to extend the authorization for the Adre border crossing, open additional cross-border and crossline access routes, and facilitate airport access for humanitarian purposes,” Thomas-Greenfield added.
The Sudanese army-backed government is committed to facilitate aid deliveries across the country, including in areas controlled by the RSF, said Sudan’s UN Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed. He said 10 border crossings and seven airports had been opened for aid deliveries.
A three-month approval given by Sudanese authorities for the UN and aid groups to use the Adre border crossing with Chad to reach Darfur is due to expire in mid-November.
“There are 30 trucks that went through the Adre border crossing loaded with advanced weaponry and ammunition and this led to serious escalation in Al-Fashir and in other places,” Mohamed said. “We noticed that thousands of mercenaries from Africa and Sahel entered the country ... through Adre. The border crossing Adre is really a threat to national security.”
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council it was up to the Sudanese government to decide on whether the Adre crossing would remain open beyond mid-November and that it would be “inappropriate to put pressure on” the government.
“We’re categorically opposed to the politicization of humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We believe that any humanitarian assistance should be conducted and delivered solely with the central authorities in the loop.”
Sudanese need protection, but conditions not right for UN force, says Guterres
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Sudanese need protection, but conditions not right for UN force, says Guterres
- “Sudan is, once again, rapidly becoming a nightmare of mass ethnic violence,” Guterres said
- The current war has produced waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF
Israel to pursue new talks on Gaza hostage deal
- Netanyahu’s office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha and agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it had discussed with international mediators the outline of proposed talks with Hamas on a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as its forces pounded both Lebanon and the Palestinian territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha and agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in last year’s October 7 attack.
The statement came two days after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that, he said, could lead to a permanent ceasefire.
“During the meeting, the parties discussed a new unified framework that combines previous proposals and also takes into account key issues and recent developments in the region,” Netanyahu’s office said.
“In the coming days, discussions will continue between the mediators and Hamas to assess the feasibility of talks and to further efforts to promote a deal.”
US President Joe Biden, asked about the possibility of a ceasefire just over a year after Hamas’s cross-border attack triggered the Gaza war which has spread to Lebanon and threatened to draw in Iran, said he would talk to Israel immediately to push for a ceasefire.
“My staff is talking to them right now,” Biden said, after casting an early ballot in the race for his successor. “We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end.”
The United States is Israel’s top military supplier and a mediator in the Doha talks. Biden has stood by the country’s right to defend itself despite international outrage at the mounting death toll in both Gaza and Lebanon, where for the past month it has engaged in a ground and air war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Israel strike on Lebanon-Syria crossing hampers key escape route
- Land crossing on Lebanon’s northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria’s Homs province
- It was put out of service last Friday when the Israeli strike created a large crater that blocked vehicle traffic
AL-QUSAYR: The flow of displaced families crossing from Lebanon into Syria via a secondary crossing has slowed to a trickle after an Israeli strike there last week, a local official told AFP on Monday.
The land crossing on Lebanon’s northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria’s Homs province.
It was put out of service last Friday when the Israeli strike created a large crater that blocked vehicle traffic.
The raid came after the main land border with Syria, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side and which lies between Beirut and Damascus, was forced to close by an Israel strike on October 4.
The attacks have heavily constrained the ability of people to flee Lebanon overland at a time when all airlines except the national carrier have suspended flights.
“The movement of displaced people has dropped by 90 percent since the (Jousieh) crossing was targeted,” said Dabbah Al-Mashaal, a Syrian official who oversees the crossing.
“We used to receive about 1,500 people a day, but today the number does not exceed 150,” he told AFP.
Lebanese authorities said on Friday that more than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month at the start of its all-out war with Hezbollah.
Six official land crossings connect the two countries, although there are many unofficial routes along the porous border.
Four connect Lebanon to Homs province to the northeast. The province is home to the city of Qusayr, which became a major hub for Hezbollah when it intervened in the Syrian civil war in support of President Bashar Assad.
At the Jousieh crossing on Monday, people were seen crossing into Syria on foot, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and pushing buggies, according to an AFP correspondent.
The Israeli army said on Friday that it had destroyed Hezbollah infrastructure at the crossing.
Israel has repeatedly accused the Iran-backed group of transferring weapons into Lebanon from Syria.
Since September 23, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed at least 1,672 people, according to an AFP tally of nationwide health ministry figures though the real number is likely to be higher due to data gaps.
Iran executes Iranian-German national after terrorism conviction
- Jamshid Sharmahd, who holds US residency, was sentenced to death in 2023 on charges of corruption on earth
- CDU leader Friedrich Merz: The execution of the death sentence against our fellow citizen Jamshid Sharmahd is a heinous crime
Iran executed Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd after he was convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks, Iranian state media said on Monday.
Sharmahd, who also holds US residency, was sentenced to death in 2023 on charges of “corruption on earth,” a capital offense under Iran’s Islamic laws.
He was accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country.
Sharmahd’s arrest was announced in 2020 in an intelligence ministry statement that described him as “the ringleader of the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America.”
Based in Los Angeles, the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar, says it seeks to restore the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution. It runs pro-Iranian opposition radio and television stations abroad.
“The execution of the death sentence against our fellow citizen Jamshid Sharmahd is a heinous crime,” the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany, Friedrich Merz, told Reuters on Monday.
The opposition leader asked the German government to respond decisively, saying that the approach of “quiet diplomacy” had failed.
“Relations with Iran should be put to the test in view of the state-sponsored killing of a German citizen,” Merz said. “The Iranian ambassador must be expelled.”
Iran at disadvantage after Israel’s airstrikes, Israeli defense minister says
- Israel has “damaged their production capabilities, which changes the balance of power. Their supplies are now set, and this affects their calculus,” statement said
JERUSALEM: Iran is at a disadvantage that can be exploited in the future after Israeli airstrikes over the weekend, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday.
“You have conducted accurate strikes on their radars and air defense systems, which creates a huge disadvantage for the enemy when we will want to strike later,” a statement released by Gallant’s office quoted the defense minister as saying during a meeting with air force chiefs.
“You have also damaged their production capabilities, which changes the balance of power. Their supplies are now set, and this affects their calculus. Both their attack and defensive capabilities have been weakened.”
Iran has said Saturday’s airstrikes caused limited damage. A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond.
Israel’s air strikes responded to an Iranian missile attack on Israel on Oct. 1.
Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza
- Legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid
JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and deeming it a terror organization.
The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the UN Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about its potential impact on Palestinians as the war’s humanitarian toll is worsening.
Under the first law, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, while the second would sever diplomatic ties with it. The legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid.
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under the agency’s facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.
The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.
