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CAIRO: The UN High Commission for Human Rights on Friday said it was appalled by “brutal” attacks by Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, which killed at least 89 civilians, including 16 who were summarily executed, in a span of 10 days this month.
The attacks occurred between Aug. 11 and 20 in the city of El-Fasher and the nearby Abu Shouk displacement camp, Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for commissioner Volker Turk, said in a Geneva briefing. 
He said the death toll is likely higher. The dead include at least 57 who were killed in attacks on Aug. 11, he said. 
Another 32 were killed between Aug. 16-20, Laurence said. 
Among the dead were 16 civilians, mostly from the African Zaghawa tribe, who were summarily executed in the Abu Shouk camp, he said. 
Another one was killed in El-Fasher by RSF fighters when he said he belonged to the African Berti tribe, Laurence said.
“This pattern of attacks on civilians and willful killings, which are serious violations of international humanitarian law, deepens our concerns about ethnically motivated violence,” he said.
El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, is the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur. 
The RSF has bombed the city for more than a year, and last month it imposed a total blockade on its hundreds of thousands of people.
The RSF also repeatedly attacked Abu Shouk and another displacement camp, Zamzam, which was once Sudan’s largest, with over 500,000 people. 
The two camps are located outside El-Fasher and were largely emptied after a major RSF attack in April. They have been hit by famine.
The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese military, grew out of the Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by former President Omar Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur in the early 2000s.
The Janjaweed militias, who were accused of mass killings, rapes, and other atrocities in the Darfur conflict, still aid the RSF in its ongoing war against the military.
The current war began in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military leaders and the RSF erupted into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities across the sprawling northeastern African country.
The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, forced more than 14 million to flee their homes, and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine swept parts of the country.
It has been marked by gross atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the United Nations and rights groups. 
The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

DUBAI: Iran said Friday its foreign minister spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, just days ahead of a European deadline.

The call by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came as the three countries threatened to invoke the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by month’s end, allowing any party to reimpose sanctions if they find Iran out of compliance with requirements such as international monitoring of its nuclear program.

The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the conflict’s wake. That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.

Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed nation enriching uranium at that level. The US, the IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.

After the call, a statement released on Araghchi’s behalf via Telegram said he criticized the countries’ “legal and moral qualifications” to threaten to reinstate the sanctions, but insisted talks would continue.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it acts authoritatively in self defense, has never abandoned the path of diplomacy and is ready for any diplomatic solution that guarantees the rights and interests of the Iranian people,” the statement said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed on the social platform X that the talks took place, and said another round of discussions would happen next week.

“We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear program and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reapply,” he said. “Time is running out.”

That was echoed by Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who said “time is very short.”

“Iran needs to engage substantively in order to avoid the activation of snapback,” he wrote on X. “We have been clear that we will not let the snapback of sanctions expire unless there is a verifiable and durable deal.”

European letter set deadline

In a letter Aug. 8, the three European nations warned Iran it would proceed with “snapback” if Tehran didn’t reach a “satisfactory solution” to the nuclear issues. That deadline would be Aug. 31, in nine days, leaving little time for Iran to likely reach any agreement with the Europeans, who have grown increasingly skeptical of Iran over years of inconclusive negotiations over its nuclear program.

Restoring the IAEA’s access is a key part of the talks. Iran has blamed the war with Israel in part on the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, without offering any evidence. The IAEA issues quarterly reports on Iran’s program and the 2015 deal gave the agency greater access to keep track of it. Its Board of Governors voted to find Iran out of compliance with its obligations to the agency the day before the Iran-Israel war began.

Iran has also threatened its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, with arrest if he comes to Iran, further complicating talks. Grossi is considering running to become the UN’s secretary-general, something Tehran has seized on as well in its criticisms of the Argentine diplomat.

Alongside the European call with Iran, IAEA officials in Vienna were to meet with Iranian officials, a diplomat close to the agency told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. Those talks would be a continuation of a discussion held during an Aug. 11 visit to Tehran by Massimo Aparo, a deputy to Grossi, the diplomat added. Iranian state television also acknowledged the meeting would happen.

Iran tries to downplay ‘snapback’ threat

Araghchi has sought to downplay the threat that “snapback” poses. In his statement after the call, he said Iran would discuss the “snapback” threat with its friends, likely meaning China and Russia.

The “snapback” power in the nuclear accord expires in October, also putting pressure on the Europeans to potentially use it as leverage with Iran before losing that ability.

Under “snapback,” any party to the deal can find Iran in noncompliance, reimposing the sanctions. After it expires, any sanctions effort could face a veto from UN Security Council members China and Russia, two nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past but stayed out of the June war.