ERDOĞAN DISCUSSES ONGOING CRISES WITH UN CHIEF GUTERRES
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the importance of extending the U.N. cross-border aid mechanism to Syria, in a phone call with the U.N. secretary-general on Friday.
The long-running aid operation has been in place since 2014.
Around 15.3 million people will require humanitarian protection and assistance in 2023, the highest since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, according to the U.N.
The president also told Antonio Guterres that Turkey is ready to help the U.N. with any effort in ending the Russia-Ukraine war and de-escalating the situation in Sudan. He noted that Turkey values the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and is ready to contribute to efforts for the ammonium pipeline.
The export of Russian ammonia would be via an existing pipeline to the Black Sea.
The pipeline was designed to pump up to 2.5 million tons of ammonia gas per year from Russia's Volga region to Ukraine's Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, known as Yuzhny in Russian, near Odessa for onward shipment to international buyers. It was shut down after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The export of ammonia was not part of the renewal of the U.N.-backed grains corridor deal that restored commercial shipping from Ukraine.
As a country that is able to establish a dialogue with both sides of the conflict in Sudan, Erdoğan said Ankara is also ready to cooperate with the U.N. or host peace talks to end the crisis.
SEVERAL HUNDRED AMERICANS DEPARTED SUDAN BY LAND, SEA, AND AIR
Several hundred US citizens have already departed Sudan either by land, sea or air from conflict-torn Sudan, according to the US State Department on Friday.
"Throughout our communications with American citizens, we are connecting them with avenues for departure of the country," Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during a daily press briefing.
When asked about the message for Americans who want to leave Sudan, Patel advised them to register with the crisis form available on the website of the US embassy in Khartoum "so that our consular officers can get in touch with them".
Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group agreed to extend the humanitarian truce on Thursday night for 72 more hours while the parties have reported violations of the ceasefire.
The clashes in Sudan erupted on April 15, which left more than 400 people dead and injured more than 4,000 others.
Patel said the US believes that an extension and adherence to a ceasefire is not just important for the people of Sudan but it is also critical to "get American citizens to safety as well as the citizens and personnel of our allies and partners."
"We have been continuously engaging the SAF and the RSF to continue to further extend this 72 ceasefire and get us to a point where we can have a durable cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements," he added.
SAUDI ARABIA, IRAN TO REOPEN EMBASSIES 'WITHIN DAYS'
Saudi Arabia and Iran will reopen embassies in each other's capitals "within days," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday in a sign of warming relations after the two countries closed their missions seven years ago, Reuters reports.
Speaking at a news conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Amirabdollahian did not give specific dates for the reopening of the embassies, which closed in 2016.
"During the last phone call between the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia on Eid al-Fitr, we agreed to work in the next coming days on the reopening of the Iranian and Saudi embassies in Tehran and Riyadh," Amirabdollahian said, according to an official Arabic translation.
The regional rivals agreed last month to restore diplomatic relations under a deal brokered by China.
Their relationship started deteriorating in 2015 following the intervention of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the Yemen war, after the Iran-aligned Houthi movement toppled the Saudi-backed government and seized control of the capital Sanaa.
Tension between the countries has fueled conflicts across the region, including the Syrian civil war.
Amirabdollahian was speaking at the end of his visit to Lebanon where he met with Lebanese officials including Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The Iranian foreign minister confirmed President Ebrahim Raisi would visit Syria in "the near future" without providing details.
The visit would be the first by an Iranian president to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since war broke out in Syria in 2011. With military help and economic support from both Iran and Russia, Assad was able to turn the tide of the conflict and regain control of most of his country.
In Israel, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi sought to cast Iran’s diplomatic outreach as a response to what he described as its failure to contend with Israeli military strikes on its assets in Syria and elsewhere.
PRESIDENT OF IRAN TO LEAVE FOR SYRIA
President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi is slated to travel to Damascus next week in the first visit by a head of the Iranian government to Syria in over a decade, Iran International reports.
According to a senior regional source close to the Syrian government quoted by Reuters on Friday, a détente in ties between Riyadh and Tehran, as well as a thaw in Syria’s isolation among Arab states, have paved the way for the visit.
Since war broke out in Syria in 2011, no Iranian president has visited the country despite the Islamic Republic’s continuous military involvement and economic support to President Bashar al-Assad. Thanks to Iran and Russia, Assad was able to turn the tide of the conflict and regain control of most of his country.
The Syrian daily al-Watan, a privately owned government-aligned outlet, reported that Raisi's visit would last two days and a string of agreements, particularly on economic cooperation, would be signed during his stay.
Earlier this month, regional sources revealed that the Islamic Republic had been using the opportunity of earthquake relief to smuggle weapons and military equipment into Syria following the devastating February earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. The fact that humanitarian relief is not subject to sanctions, makes it all the easier for Iran to capitalize on the catastrophe.
Syria became a key battleground between Iran and its adversaries, as Iran buttresses the threat from Israel and strengthens the Assad regime. Strikes in recent weeks by Israel have seen Iranian military figures killed from the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Force in Syria, as well as targeting weapons factories and infrastructure in Iran.
