CAIRO: An agreement signed years ago for the creation of a Russian naval base in Sudan remains on the table following talks in Moscow, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yusef Sharif said in an interview with Russia Today on Wednesday.
Such a deal has been discussed for years since an agreement was signed under former President Omar Al-Bashir. The army generals who overthrew him in 2019 said later the plan was under review, and a base has never materialized.
“In our meeting we did not negotiate the deal ... there was a deal signed and there is no disagreement,” he said, saying that as before all that remains is the issue of ratification.
“There are no obstacles, we are in complete agreement,” Sharif had said earlier when asked about the deal, following talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
He did not provide any additional details on the plan.
Russia has cultivated ties with both sides in Sudan’s almost two-year-long civil war, and Russian officials have visited the army’s wartime capital of Port Sudan in recent months.
Last year, a top Sudanese general said Russia had asked for a fueling station on the Red Sea in exchange for weapons and ammunition.
Sharif said such a station presented no threat to any other country or to Sudan’s sovereignty, drawing on the example of nearby Djibouti, which hosts several foreign bases.
Such a station would be beneficial to Russia, particularly after the fall of Syria’s Assad regime put in question key bases there.
The war in Sudan has drawn in multiple competing regional and global influences, in part due to its ample Red Sea coastline, as well as gold resources.
Russian Red Sea base deal still on the table, Sudanese FM says
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Russian Red Sea base deal still on the table, Sudanese FM says
- The war in Sudan has drawn in multiple competing regional and global influences, in part due to its ample Red Sea coastline, as well as gold resources
Palestinian patients in Gaza dying due to lack of medical supplies, equipment: American surgeon
- Dr. Mark Perlmutter spent three weeks treating patients in Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals
- He was inside Nasser Hospital when Israeli airstrike targeted Hamas finance chief Ismail Barhoum
LONDON: An American surgeon working in Gaza has described the dire conditions in hospitals, saying Palestinian patients have died due to a lack of medical supplies and equipment.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter, who spent three weeks treating patients in Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals, told the BBC that doctors are operating without soap, antibiotics or X-ray facilities.
“The small community hospital, Al-Aqsa, is a tenth the size of any of the facilities in my home state — maybe smaller — and it did well to manage those horrible injuries,” he told the broadcaster following his second trip to the Palestinian enclave.
“Nevertheless, because of lack of equipment, many, many of those patients died, who would certainly not have died at a better-equipped hospital.”
He described treating severely wounded children, including a 15-year-old girl hit by Israeli machinegun fire while riding her bicycle and a boy, the same age, who was in a car with his grandmother after receiving warnings to evacuate from the north.
“They were both macerated and shredded by Apache gunships,” Perlmutter said. “The girl will be lucky if she keeps three of her limbs.”
Perlmutter was inside Nasser Hospital when an Israeli airstrike targeted Hamas finance chief Ismail Barhoum.
He said Barhoum was receiving medical treatment and had a right to protection under the Geneva Convention. The Israeli military said he was in the hospital “in order to commit acts of terrorism.”
With most hospitals in Gaza barely functioning, Perlmutter praised the commitment and dedication of the Palestinian medical staff, which he said go above and beyond the efforts of foreign doctors like himself.
“They all abandon their families, they volunteer and often work without pay. We get to go home in a month, which they don’t,” he said.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has called the situation in Gaza “dire,” noting that humanitarian aid remains blocked at border crossings.
Israel’s onslaught has killed more than 15,000 Palestinian children in Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry has said, adding that since Israel broke a ceasefire and resumed its strikes on March 18, 921 Palestinians have been killed.
Perlmutter warned that if the Israeli attacks continue, hospitals operating without urgent medical supplies will see more wounded Palestinians die from treatable injuries.
Lebanon makes arrests over rockets fired at Israel
- Lebanon’s General Security agency said it had “arrested a number of suspects, and the relevant authorities have begun investigations with them”
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities said Sunday several suspects had been arrested after rockets were fired at neighboring Israel earlier this month, testing a fragile November ceasefire.
Lebanon’s General Security agency said it had “arrested a number of suspects, and the relevant authorities have begun investigations with them to determine responsibility and take the appropriate legal measures.”
Militant group Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel last year, has denied involvement in the rocket fire that took place on March 22 and 28.
It however prompted an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold for the first time since the truce went into effect in November.
Gaza rescuers say recovered 15 bodies after Israel fire on ambulances
- Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza’s civil defense agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved
- One medic from the Red Crescent remains missing
GAZA CITY: The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers killed a week ago when Israeli forces targeted ambulances in the Gaza Strip.
Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza’s civil defense agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement.
It said one medic from the Red Crescent remained missing.
The group said the those killed “were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area.”
“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent medics ... can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world.”
In an earlier statement the Red Crescent said the bodies “were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency also confirmed that 15 bodies had been recovered, adding that the deceased UN employee was from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.
The incident occurred on March 23 in Rafah city’s Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, close to the Egyptian border, just days after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza following an almost two-month-long truce.
On Saturday, the Red Crescent had accused Israeli authorities of refusing to allow search operations to locate its crew.
The Israeli military acknowledged its troops had opened fire on ambulances.
It told AFP in a statement this week that its forces had “opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists.”
“A few minutes afterwards, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops” who “responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles,” it said, adding that several “terrorists” were killed.
“Some of the suspicious vehicles... were ambulances and fire trucks,” the military statement said, citing “an initial inquiry” into the incident.
It condemned “the repeated use” by “terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes.”
Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since resumption of hostilities on March 18, Israeli air strikes have hit “densely populated areas,” with “patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 921 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed its large-scale strikes.
Jordanian authorities arrest 10 drug traffickers in major anti-narcotics operations
- Among most significant arrests was that of notorious suspected synthetic cannabis dealer in Irbid Governorate
AMMAN: Jordan’s Anti-Narcotics Department arrested 10 alleged drug traffickers and smugglers in five high-profile cases as part of an ongoing crackdown on drug-related crimes across the country, a spokesperson for the Public Security Directorate announced on Sunday.
Among the most significant arrests was that of a notorious suspected synthetic cannabis dealer in Irbid Governorate.
Authorities also detained three individuals said to be involved in the production and distribution of the potent “Joker” drug, which is a synthetic cannabinoid, also known as a neocannabinoid, which are designer drugs that mimic the effects of cannabis.
A raid on the main suspect’s apartment led to the seizure of 6 kg of the substance, along with hazardous chemicals used in its manufacture. Three additional suspects were arrested in Ramtha District on suspicion of assisting in the operation.
In Aqaba Governorate, an alleged drug dealer was apprehended in possession of 60 hashish pills, while another suspected trafficker in Madaba Governorate was caught with 10 palm-sized sheets of hashish, a quantity of crystal meth, and a weapon after resisting arrest.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mafraq Governorate arrested an individual found with half a kilogram of crystal meth.
Additionally, security forces intercepted a suspicious package arriving in Amman from an unamed neighboring country. Upon inspection, they discovered 10,000 narcotic pills. Further investigations led to the arrest of three individuals connected to the case.
The Public Security Directorate reaffirmed its commitment to combating drug trafficking and bringing perpetrators to justice, emphasizing that efforts to dismantle criminal networks will continue nationwide, Jordan News Agency reported.
Morocco’s $728m ‘water highway’ faces sustainability concerns
- The project succeeds in heading off immediate threat to the water supply of the country’s most populous region
KENITRA: Morocco is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tapping northern rivers to supply water to parched cities farther south but experts question the sustainability of the project in the face of climate change.
The North African kingdom has spent $728 million so far on what it dubs a “water highway” to redirect the surplus flow of the Sebou River to meet the drinking water needs of capital Rabat and economic hub Casablanca, according to official figures.
In the future, it plans to tap other northern rivers to extend the project to the southern city of Marrakech.
FASTFACT
Morocco has long suffered from extreme disparities in rainfall between the Atlas mountain ranges and the semi-arid and desert regions farther south.
Officials say the project has been a success in heading off the immediate threat to the water supply of the country’s most populous region.
“Transferring surplus water from the Sebou basin in the north allowed us to prevent about 12 million people from running out of water,” said senior agriculture ministry official Mahjoub Lahrache.
In late 2023, the capital Rabat and its surrounding region came perilously close to running out of water when the main reservoir supplying the city ran dry.
Morocco has long suffered from extreme disparities in rainfall between the Atlas mountain ranges and the semi-arid and desert regions farther south.
“Fifty-three percent of rainfall occurs in just seven percent of the national territory,” Water Minister Nizar Baraka told AFP.
In the past, rainfall in the Atlas ranges has created sufficient surplus flow on most northern rivers for them to reach the ocean even in the driest months of the year.
It is those surpluses that the “water highway” project seeks to tap.
A diversion dam has been built in the city of Kenitra, just inland from the Atlantic coast, to hold back the flow of the Sebou River before it enters the ocean.
The water is then treated and transported along a 67-kilometer (42-mile) underground canal to supply residents of Rabat and Casablanca.
Inaugurated last August, the “water highway” had supplied more than 700 million cubic meters (24.7 billion cubic feet) of drinking water to the two urban areas by early March, according to official figures.
But experts question how long the Sebou and other northern rivers will continue to generate water surpluses that can be tapped.
The kingdom already suffers from significant water stress after six straight years of drought.
Annual water supply has dropped from an average of 18 billion cubic meters in the 1980s to just five billion today, according to official figures.
Despite heavy rains in the northwest in early March, Morocco remains in the grip of drought with rainfall 75 percent below historical averages.
The dry spell has been “the longest in the country’s history,” the water minister said, noting that previous dry cycles typically lasted three years at most.
Rising temperatures — up 1.8 degrees Celsius last year alone — have intensified evaporation.
Experts say that climate change is likely to see further reductions in rainfall, concentrated in the very areas from which the “water highway” is designed to tap surplus flows.
“Future scenarios indicate that northern water basins will be significantly more affected by climate change than those in the south over the next 60 years,” said water and climate researcher Nabil El Mocayd.
“What is considered surplus today may no longer exist in the future due to this growing deficit,” he added, referencing a 2020 study in which he recommended scaling back the “water highway.”
Demand for water for irrigation also remains high in Morocco, where the farm sector employs nearly a third of the workforce.
Researcher Abderrahim Handouf said more needed to be done to help farmers adopt water-efficient irrigation techniques.
Handouf said the “water highway” was “an effective solution in the absence of alternatives” but warned that climate challenges will inevitably “create problems even in the north.”
“We must remain cautious,” he said, calling for greater investment in desalination plants to provide drinking water to the big cities.
