Syria writers urge new leaders to respect public freedoms

CAIRO: Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie has told shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk there are signs of stability returning to the Red Sea, and urged the company to take that into account when planning sea routes, according to a statement from the SCA.

The statement said Rabie made the comments at a meeting with the CEO of the Danish container shipping group and other senior executives but did not say when the meeting took place.
“We seek to take into account the positive indicators observed in the Red Sea region when planning maritime schedules in the coming period,” Rabie was quoted as saying.
Several major global shipping companies have suspended Red Sea voyages and rerouted vessels around southern Africa to avoid potential attacks from Houthis.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said in December the disruption had cost Egypt around $7 billion in revenues from the Suez Canal in 2024.
Last week, Maersk said it would continue to divert vessels away from the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea and toward the southern tip of Africa despite the Houthis announcing they would curb their attacks on ships.
Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships since November 2023 and sunk two vessels, seized another, and killed at least four seafarers.
Meanwhile, the volume of goods moving through Spanish ports rose by 6 percent in 2024 after they became the first point of call in Europe for many companies sending their goods around southern Africa.
The state port agency said Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Barcelona saw 13 percent and 9 percent increases in volumes of merchandise, bulk liquids, and dry bulk last year.
“The situation has caused some specific peak moments of extra activity, to which Spanish ports have adapted,” the agency said, adding it expected higher port traffic to continue as instability in the Red Sea persists.
“Carriers will want to be assured there is an outlook for long-term safe passage before returning to the Red Sea to avoid further massive disruption if the situation deteriorates and they are forced to divert around Cape of Good Hope once again,” said Emily Stausboll, a senior shipping analyst at freight platform Xeneta.
The traffic of goods moved in containers through Spain’s ports rose by 11 percent last year, while Spanish ports also recorded an increase in vessels bunkering to prepare for longer routes, the agency said.
In 2023, the ports saw a 4.5 percent decline in container traffic.
According to two executives in the local fashion industry, some Spanish retailers shipped more goods by air to meet demand because of the additional two weeks required to ship goods to Europe via southern Africa.

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in a rare video address on Friday, acknowledged setbacks in the capital Khartoum but vowed to expel the army from the city again.
The war since April 2023 between Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, according to the United Nations, and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
After months of apparent stalemate in Khartoum, the army one week ago broke an almost two-year RSF siege of its Khartoum General Command headquarters. On the same day, the army reported reclaiming its Signal Corps base in Khartoum North, and expelling the RSF from Jaili oil refinery north of Khartoum.
In his address on Friday, Dagalo — commonly known as Hemeti — acknowledged setbacks in the capital but urged his troops “not to think of the army entering the General Command or the Signal Corps... or taking control of Al-Jaili or Wad Madani.”
Two weeks before its gains in Khartoum the army reclaimed the Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, securing a key crossroads just south of the capital.
The RSF last week said army statements claiming they had broken the sieges and seized Jaili refinery were rumors intended to sway public opinion.
But on Friday, Dagalo promised his fighters that the army “will not enjoy the General Command for long, nor will they enjoy the Signal Corps.”
“We must think of what we intend to take,” he added.
Appearing behind a desk in military fatigues, with a camouflage scarf wrapped around his neck, the RSF leader said “we expelled them (from Khartoum), and we will expel them again.”
Dagalo has remained out of sight for most of the war, with his rare addresses usually delivered via voice message on social media.
His troops early in the war conquered much of Khartoum and pushed south. They still control almost all of Sudan’s vast western Darfur region.
Army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan — Dagalo’s former ally before they fell out in a power struggle — on Sunday visited his troops at the General Command, which is near central Khartoum and the airport.
His push into RSF-controlled Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, enabled the army’s biggest victory since it regained Omdurman, the third district of the capital, around a year ago.
According to an army source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, fighting continued Friday for the Kafouri neighborhood in eastern Bahri.
This month, the United States sanctioned both Hemeti and Burhan, accusing the former of genocide and the latter of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.