Sudan lawmakers cancel meeting on constitutional changes
A Sudanese parliamentary committee tasked with amending the constitution to allow President Omar al-bashir to run for another term abruptly canceled its meeting on Sunday, the sate-run news agency said, as hundreds of protesters in the capital called for an end to the president’s three-decade rule.
SUNA said the meeting was scheduled for Sunday but was postponed for “emergency reasons” and that a new date would be announced later, AP reported.
Sudan’s constitution, amended in 2005, allows the president to run for two five-year terms.
In December, the Sudanese Parliament, which is packed with members of al-bashir’s National Congress party, demanded a constitutional amendment to enable the president to serve an unlimited presidential term. He was elected in 2010 and 2015.
In Khartoum, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters, according to local activists. The doctor’s union said a protester named Abu Bakr Yussef, 62, died from suffocation after tear gas was fired in the capital’s northern Bahri district.
Online video footage showed protesters in Khartoum chanting: “Freedom, peace, justice” and “Revolution is people’s choice.” It also showed a street vendor being wounded in clashes between protesters and police forces. The activists said the injured vendor was taken to a nearby hospital.
The activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. A government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sunday’s protests, called for by professional and opposition groups, were the latest in a wave of demonstrations that began across much of Sudan on Dec. 19, first against price rises and shortages but soon after began calling for the ouster of al-bashir. They coincide with worsening economic woes that saw a currency devaluation spiking prices, fuel shortages and a steep rise in the price of bread, a main fare for most Sudanese.
Activists say the death of Yussef, the protester, has raised the protests’ death toll to at least 58 people. The government’s latest tally stands at 30 killed, but its figures have not been updated in days.
Al-bashir, in power since a 1989 military coup he led, insists that only elections, in which he intends to run, can bring change.
Iran is ready to work with all of its neighbors to secure peace in the Middle East in the face of US and Israeli aggression, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday. “Iran is ready to work with regional states to preserve security in the Middle East,” Rouhani said in a public speech in the southern Hormuzgan Province. “We want to establish brotherly ties with all countries of the region ... Iran has never started any aggression in the region.” Only the Syrian state can protect groups in northern Syria and the army will “liberate every inch of Syria” from foreign troops, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday.
He did not specifically mention the planned withdrawal of 2,000 American troops from northern Syria in the coming months, but in a televised speech in Damascus he said no one should bet on protection from the Americans.
He appeared to be referring to Us-allied Kurdish groups in the north who fear a Turkish assault once American troops withdraw from northeastern Syria. The US has partnered with local Kurdish militants in the fight against the Daesh terror group.
President Donald Trump has said he wants US troops to leave. Trump’s announcement has raised fears that Turkey may soon be able to launch an offensive on the Kurdish militants. Turkey considers the north Syria-based Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.
The US move drove Syrian Kurdish leaders into fresh talks with Damascus and its key ally Moscow, hoping to agree a deal that could safeguard at least some