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Sudan rivals pledge evacuation help, US diplomats airlifted

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(Last Updated On: April 23, 2023)

American embassy staffers and their families were airlifted from Sudan early Sunday, as forces loyal to rival generals battled for control of Africa’s third-largest nation.

The warring sides said they were helping coordinate the evacuation of foreigners, though continued exchanges of fire in Sudan’s capital undermined those claims, Associated Press reported.

A senior Biden administration official said U.S. troops are carrying out the precarious evacuation of U.S. Embassy staffers. The troops who airlifted the staff out of Khartoum have safely left Sudanese airspace, a second U.S. official confirmed.

The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which has been battling the Sudanese army, said the U.S. rescue mission involved six aircraft and that it had coordinated evacuation efforts with the U.S.

But the U.S. denied the group did anything to help the evacuation.

“You may have seen some assertions in social media in recent hours, that the Rapid Security Forces somehow coordinated with us and supported this operation. That was not the case,” said Under Secretary of State for Management John Bass.

“They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation.”

The RSF, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamad Dagolo, said it is cooperating with all diplomatic missions and that it is committed to a three-day cease-fire that was declared at sundown Friday.

Earlier, army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan said he would facilitate the evacuation of American, British, Chinese and French citizens and diplomats from Sudan after speaking with the leaders of several countries that had requested help.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said Sunday that France was organizing the evacuation of its embassy staff, French citizens in Sudan and citizens of allied countries. She said France was organizing the operation “in connection with all the involved parties, as well as with our European partners and allies.”

However, the situation on the ground remains volatile. Most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of the capital has proven intensely dangerous. The two rivals have dug in, signaling they would resume the fighting after the declared three-day truce.

Saudi Arabia announced the successful repatriation of some of its citizens on Saturday, sharing footage of Saudi nationals and other foreigners welcomed with chocolate and flowers as they stepped off an apparent evacuation ship at the Saudi port of Jeddah, AP reported.

Officials did not elaborate on exactly how the rescue unfolded but Burhan said the Saudi diplomats and nationals had first traveled by land to Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport on the Red Sea. He said that Jordan’s diplomats would soon be evacuated in the same way. The port is in Sudan’s far east, some 840 kilometers from Khartoum.

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Turkey accuses U.S. of double standards over Gaza in rights report

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(Last Updated On: April 25, 2024)

Turkey on Wednesday accused the United States of having a policy of double standards on human rights, saying Washington’s annual rights report failed to reflect Israel’s assaults in Gaza, Reuters reported.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement it was deeply concerned that the U.S. report did not “duly reflect the ongoing inhumane attacks in Gaza”.

The report was prepared with “political motives, far from impartiality and objectivity”, it said, calling on Washington to cease its “double-standard policy on human rights”.

It also cited U.S. ties with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia which Ankara deems a terrorist organisation.

Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health authorities there, many of them civilians and children. The enclave has been reduced to a wasteland and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine.

Israel launched its assault in response to an attack by the Hamas militant group on Oct. 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. It denies allegations of deliberately causing humanitarian suffering and targeting civilians.

Turkey has denounced Israel for its campaign in Gaza and called for a ceasefire. It has also criticised Western countries for what it calls their unconditional support of Israel, read the report.

In its report, the U.S. State Department said Israel’s war against Hamas had a “significant negative impact” on the human rights situation in Israel.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State AntZony Blinken rejected suggestions that Washington might have double standards over Israel’s record.

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Iranian president lands in Pakistan for three-day visit to mend ties

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(Last Updated On: April 22, 2024)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Islamabad on Monday on a three-day official visit, the foreign office said, amid tight security in the Pakistani capital, Reuters reported.

The visit, which Pakistan’s foreign office said would run until Wednesday, comes as the two Muslim neighbours seek to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes this year.

“The Iranian president is accompanied by his spouse and a high-level delegation,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the group also included the foreign minister, other cabinet members and senior officials.

Raisi will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials, besides visiting the eastern city of Lahore and southern port city of Karachi, it added.

Major highways in Islamabad were blocked as part of the security measures for Raisi’s arrival, while the government declared a public holiday in Karachi, read the report.

Raisi’s visit is a key step towards normalising ties with Islamabad, but Iran’s supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni, not the president, has the last say on state matters, such as nuclear policy.

Tension is also high in the Middle East after Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel a week ago and central Iran in turn suffered what sources said was an Israeli attack on Friday.

Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite a number of commercial pacts, with Islamabad being historically closer to Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Their highest profile agreement is a stalled gas supply deal signed in 2010 to build a pipeline from Iran’s South Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, Reuters reported.

Despite Pakistan’s dire need of gas, Islamabad has yet to begin construction of its part of the pipeline, citing fears over U.S. sanctions – a concern Tehran has rejected.

Pakistan said it would seek waivers from the U.S., but Washington has said it does not support the project and warned of the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran.

Faced with the possibility of contract breach penalties running into the billions of dollars, Islamabad recently gave the go-ahead for construction of an 80-km (50-mile) stretch of the pipeline.

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Iran’s foreign minister downplays drone attack, says Tehran investigating

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(Last Updated On: April 20, 2024)

Iran’s foreign minister on Friday said Tehran was investigating an overnight attack on Iran, adding that so far a link to Israel had not been proven as he downplayed the strike.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News the drones took off from inside Iran and flew for a few hundred meters before being downed, Reuters reported.

“They’re … more like toys that our children play with, not drones,” Amirabdollahian said.

“It has not been proved to us that there is a connection between these and Israel,” he said, adding that Iran was investigating the matter but that media reports were not accurate, according to Tehran’s information.

Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from air defenses hitting three drones over Isfahan in central Iran in the early hours of Friday. They referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators”, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.

Amirabdollahian warned that if Israel retaliated and acted against the interests of Iran, Tehran’s next response would be immediate and at maximum level.

“But if not, then we are done. We are concluded,” he said.

The attack appeared to target an Iranian Air Force base near the city of Isfahan, deep inside the country, but without striking any strategic sites or causing major damage.

Israel has said nothing about the incident. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not been involved in any offensive operations, while the White House said it had no comment.

 

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