Ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia between Sudan’s warring generals have yielded “no major progress” so far, a Saudi official told AFP on Monday, dampening hopes for a quick end to the fighting. Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), sent representatives to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on Saturday for meetings that Washington and Riyadh have described as “pre-negotiation talks”. Goals include reaching “an effective short-term halt” to the fighting, facilitating aid delivery, restoring basic services and setting “a timetable for expanded negotiations to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities”, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement Monday. The two sides have “begun to discuss the security measures they should take in order to facilitate the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid and the restoration of essential services”, the statement said. But a Saudi diplomat told AFP on Monday that “no major progress is achieved so far”. “A permanent ceasefire isn’t on the table. Every side believes it is capable of winning the battle,” the diplomat added. The UN’s top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, arrived in Jeddah on Sunday intending to meet representatives of both camps, though his role in the process is unclear. A spokesperson for Griffiths said on Sunday that he had arrived in Jeddah “to engage in humanitarian issues related to Sudan”. A separate UN official said on Monday that Griffiths had “asked to join the negotiations” but that his request had not been approved so far.