KHARTOUM: Sudan’s main opposition coalition and the ruling military council on Saturday signed a final power-sharing deal that paves the way for a transitional government, and eventually elections, following the overthrow of long-time leader Omar Al-Bashir.
Stability in Sudan, which has been grappling with an economic crisis, is seen as crucial for a volatile region struggling with conflict and insurgencies from the Horn of Africa to Egypt and Libya.
One of Sudan’s top generals, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is deputy head of the military council, and opposition alliance representative Ahmad al-Rabie had initialed the agreement on Aug. 4 and were the main signatories on Saturday.
Those in the room clapped and cheered and an orchestra played a patriotic song.

Also present were African Union and Ethiopian mediators, who helped broker the accord, and representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, all of which see themselves as influential in Khartoum.

The Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir led Saudi Arabia’s delegation at the ceremony in Khartoum, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Al-Jubeir was accompanied by the Saudi Minister of State for African affairs Ahmed Abdul Aziz Kattan and the Saudi ambassador to Sudan Ali bin Hassan Jafar.

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PHOTOS: Sudanese take to the streets to celebrate transition to civilian rule

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Saudi Arabia has and will continue to support everything that guarantees Sudan’s security and stability, Al-Jubeir said at the ceremony.

“We look forward to the Sudanese fortifying the partnership agreement and combating foreign interference.”

Al-Jubeir also said that Saudi Arabia actively participated in supporting efforts to reach the agreement in Sudan.

The African Union envoy to Sudan Mohamed El-Hassan Lebatt said that Saudi Arabia’s role in facilitating the agreement in Sudan was appreciated.

Leaders of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya were also present.
“The coming period will be a test for us, no one will be excluded,” said leading opposition figure Sadiq Al-Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected premier. “We will open the door to everyone to participate in Sudan’s celebration.”
The Transitional Military Council (TMC) has ruled Sudan since April, when the military deposed Bashir following months of protests against his rule during which dozens of demonstrators were killed.
The TMC and the main opposition alliance, known as the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), have been negotiating the power-sharing deal since then, but continued unrest, during which more protesters were killed, delayed an agreement and plunged Sudan further into turmoil.
Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, some of whose members have been accused of involvement in killing demonstrators who have repeatedly turned out in huge numbers to press for political progress.
In a speech, Mohammed Nagy Alassam, a leader within the FFC, emphasized the need for an investigation and justice for those who were killed, particularly during the violent dispersal of a protest site in the capital Khartoum on June 3.
“The martyrs are still with us, they are with the revolutionaries,” spectators in the room chanted.
State television showed dozens of people lined up outside the convention centre where the signing ceremony was held, waving flags and flashing peace signs in celebration.
The make-up of a new sovereign council, which will run Sudan during a three-year transitional period leading up to elections, will be announced on Aug. 18.
According to Saturday’s agreement, the council will comprise five members each from the two sides plus a civilian agreed by both. It will name Sudan’s new premier based on a nomination by the FFC.
The accord also a 300-member legislative assembly to serve during the transitional period, and a cabinet of technocrats.
Bashir is wanted for war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region by the International Criminal Court, and is awaiting trial in Sudan on corruption charges. 

GENEVA: A group of UN human rights experts on Friday called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
The trio were charged after a video posted online showed them handing out flowers on Tehran’s metro on March 8, International Women’s Day, according to a statement co-signed by five UN special rapporteurs and another expert.
The women — named in the statement as Mojgan Keshavarz, Yasaman Aryani and Monireh Arabshahi — were not wearing veils.
They “peacefully protested against Iran’s compulsory veiling laws and advocated for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to wear the hijab,” the statement said.
According to the experts, who are independent and do not speak for the world body, the women were detained in April, “forcibly disappeared” for up to two weeks, and denied access to a lawyer through the initial investigation.
“Their legal representatives were also reporte

dly prohibited from representing them at their trial,” the statement said.
Keshavarz has been sentenced to 23-and-a-half years in prison while Aryani and Arabshahi were both given 16-year terms.
All were convicted of national security violations, spreading anti-state propaganda and “encouraging and providing for (moral) corruption and prostitution,” the UN experts said. Keshavarz was convicted of the additional crime of “insulting the sacred.”
“We call upon the Iranian authorities to quash these convictions and immediately release all human rights defenders who have been arbitrarily detained for their work in advocating women’s rights,” the statement said.
It was co-signed by Javaid Rehman, special rapporteur on rights in Iran, Dubravka Simonovic, UN expert on violence against women and Michel Forst, rapporteur on human rights defenders.
David Kaye, the expert on freedom of expression, Meskerem Geset Techane, who heads the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls, and Ahmed Shaheed, rapporteur on religious freedom, also signed the letter.

The experts said Tehran responded to their concerns by noting that the women “had been arrested on charges relating to morality and national security offenses.”
The rapporteurs also reported that arrests of women’s activists have risen in recent weeks, with Iran’s government having issued an official warning that those who do not wear a veil will face severe punishment.
They cited unidentified reports that 32 people had been arrested, and at least 10 imprisoned, since January of last year for protesting against ruled mandating that hijabs be worn.

BEIRUT: After being suddenly deported from Turkey, Nidal Hussein stood dazed just inside war-torn Syria, the latest victim of neighboring countries growing tired of hosting millions of Syrian refugees.
“I left my wife and three children in Istanbul,” the 48-year-old said last month, after he was deported for not having permission to reside in the Turkish city. “I will try to get back” into Turkey at any cost, he said.
Syria’s conflict has displaced millions of people since 2011, and its neighbors have absorbed the majority of those fleeing abroad.
But today, with no political solution to the conflict in sight, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan — who together host at least 5.2 million Syrian refugees — are increasingly seeing that population as a “burden.”
Rights groups have warned of mounting hate speech and increased government pressure on Syrians to return home, especially in Turkey and Lebanon.
While Jordan has not yet upped the pressure, it too has said the Syrian presence is weighing down its infrastructure and compounding its economic woes.
“With no clear-cut solutions for Syrian refugees to return, campaigns against them are increasing,” said analyst Nasser Yassin.
“Neighbouring countries have become exhausted,” said the head of the Beirut-based Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.
Turkey hosts the most Syrian refugees in the world at 3.6 million.
In recent weeks, rights groups have denounced reports of hundreds of refugees being deported back into Syria as part of a crackdown on those without the right residency papers.
“The hostile atmosphere toward Syrians … has worsened recently with a consensus among political parties and the media that Syrians are a source of problems,” said Yildiz Onen, spokesman for the Turkish campaign “We are all migrants.”
It “is opening the way to measures designed to make life difficult for migrants,” she said.
But “sending Syrians to a country that is still at war, particularly with the deadly bombardments in Idlib, is putting people in mortal danger,” she warned.

, referring to the ongoing Russia-backed campaign in northwest Syria.
Turkey’s government has flatly denied the reports, saying anyone returning to Syria — a total of 337,729 since the war began — has done so voluntarily.
It also rejects claims Syrians were forced to sign return forms in Turkish that they did not understand.

Lebanon too insists some 325,000 returns to Syria since 2017 have all been voluntary, even as rights groups decry measures to make their lives increasingly complicated.
The Mediterranean country of some 4.5 million people says it hosts around 1.5 million Syrians, of which nearly a million are UN-registered refugees.
Since June, more than 3,600 Syrian families have seen their shelters demolished in the eastern region of Arsal, according to the municipality.
Homes made of anything other than timber and plastic sheeting are not allowed.
Last week, the army destroyed a further 350 structures in the north of the country and arrested dozens over not having residency documents, humanitarian groups said.
The labor ministry, meanwhile, is cracking down on foreign workers without a permit in a move activists says largely targets Syrians.
Human Rights Watch has denounced both Turkey’s deportation methods and Lebanon’s pressure on Syrians as illicit.
Yassin, the analyst, said political parties — especially in Turkey and Lebanon — were using anti-refugee rhetoric to build “political and electoral capital.”
In Lebanon, “it’s easy to point a finger at (Syrians) and use them as a scapegoat,” whether to explain a struggling economy, unemployment rates, or increasing hazards to the environment.
“But all that is gross exaggeration.”
Syrians in Jordan have faced less pressure, but Amman still says around 1.3 million Syrians it hosts — more than 660,000 of which are registered refugees — are a considerable weight.
Planning ministry spokesman Issam Majali said their presence “imposed several challenges and burdens on Jordan,” affecting security and services including health care or education.
And “we are facing the challenge of finding jobs for Syrian refugees and Jordanians,” he said.
In July last year, Damascus took back control of the main border crossing between Jordan and Syria, re-opening it after three years in October.
Since then, 25,000 Syrians have returned, the UN refugee agency says.
But even as the war winds down, with the Syrian government controlling around 60 percent of the country, rights groups have warned that conditions are still not ideal for returns.
Many fear “persecution and (lack of) security,” Yassin said, while others have little to return to.
“More than half of Syrian refugees in the region say they have been told their homes have been destroyed or are uninhabitable.”

GAZA CITY: Gazan shops selling pilgrims’ gifts are enjoying a seasonal revival, with worshippers keen to buy from the local markets.

Amid the deteriorating economy in the Gaza Strip, lower prices have inspired pilgrims to buy the gifts they give to their visitors after they return from the pilgrimage at the local market.

Many pilgrims only purchase special gifts from Makkah and Madinah for relatives and friends, where regulations restrict each pilgrim to travel with limited weight.

Jihad Obeid is determined to buy all the gifts he needs locally after his return from Hajj. 

Talking to Arab News before leaving for the pilgrimage, Obeid, 63, said: “I want to take advantage of my time in worship, and I do not want to waste it on shopping and buying gifts. I went to the market and bought the best gifts at reasonable prices, so that I use my time in prayer, and spare myself the trouble of buying and transferring gifts (from Saudi Arabia).”

But Obeid did not hide his desire to bring specific gifts as souvenirs of the holy cities to his family.

Palestinian worshippers have been eager to bring home gifts such as prayer mats and clothes, perfumes and toothpicks. However, because of the complexities of travel in recent years, many prefer to buy them in Gaza.

Mohammed Ashour bought gifts and Hajj supplies for his mother, who  performed Hajj this year. 

“My mother is 70 and cannot bear the burden of carrying gifts. Everything is available in Gaza, so it is enough to bring only Zamzam water, which is the most beautiful gift,” he said.

Gaza merchants are competing to attract customers during the season, especially in light of the severe commercial recession in the markets due to the deteriorating economic conditions. 

Ahmed Abu Ghali, owner of a gift shop, hopes that there will be more market activity in the next few days despite the tough commercial conditions.

He said that the pilgrimage season is great for traders, despite the difficult conditions of the Israeli siege and the salary crisis. 

Abu Musa Lubbad, owner of a gift shop, said that pilgrims are still keen to buy gifts even though most people are facing a deteriorating economic situation.

Lubbad, who has worked in the gifts trade for many years, explained that pilgrims in Gaza did not abandon the custom of buying gifts, but the difficult circumstances made them prefer quality over price.

He urged the responsible authorities to cancel taxes on gifts and supplies for the Hajj season, taking into account the conditions of the pilgrims, who are charged extortionate fees.

According to unofficial estimates, pilgrims in the Gaza Strip spent more than $5 million (SR18m) on gifts, an average of $2,000 per pilgrim, before the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in mid-2007.

BEIRUT: Syrian forces gained more ground from insurgents in the country’s northwest on Thursday, edging closer to a major opposition-held town a day after militants shot down a regime warplane in the area.

The regime offensive, which intensified last week, has displaced nearly 100,000 people over the past four days, according to the Syrian Response Coordination Group, a relief group active in northwestern Syria.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in Idlib and its surroundings, the last major opposition stronghold in Syria, since April 30. The region is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced in other battles around the war-torn country.

The fighting over the past days has been concentrated on two fronts as regime forces march toward the town of Khan Sheikhoun from the east and west. The latest offensive also aims to besiege opposition-held towns and villages in northern parts of Hama province, according to opposition activists.

The town of Khan Sheikhoun is a stronghold of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the most powerful group in the opposition-held areas. The town was the scene of a chemical attack on April 4, 2017 that killed 89 people.

At the time, the US, Britain and France pointed a finger at the Syrian regime, saying their experts had found that nerve agents were used in the attack. Days later, the US fired 59 US Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Air Base in central Syria, saying the attack on Khan Sheikhoun was launched from the base.

The Syrian regime and its Russian allies denied there was a chemical attack.

The regime-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said on Thursday pro-regime forces captured three small villages, just west of Khan Sheikhoun.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said the villages fell in the morning hours and that the town of Khan Sheikhoun is being bombarded relentlessly.

Syrian state media confirmed that opposition fighters had downed the regime plane on Wednesday. An Al-Qaeda-linked group has released a video of the pilot in which the handcuffed man identified himself as a lieutenant colonel in the Syrian air force.

In the video, the pilot says his fighter jet was shot down when he was carrying out a mission near Khan Sheikhoun.