Is Sudan out of the American accounts? – The face of the truth – ✍️ Ibrahim Shaqlawi
Yesterday, I followed the speech of American president Donald Trump, who visited Saudi Arabia, at the Saudi economic forum, with great interest. In the light of the transformations of our region, it was expected that he will deal with the Sudanese crisis given the war which has continued since April 15, 2023. But unfortunately, it was not present in her speech, a declaration nor an index. This ignorance is an explicit indication of the Sudan site on the new card that Washington attracts in the region.
Either Khartoum is out of account, or that his file has been returned to unexpected negotiation tables in other capitals, where regional understanding takes place.
Trump’s messages were clear by focusing on files such as Iran, Syria, Gaza and the relationship with Türkiye and Israel. As for Sudan, which faces a devastating war, he did not even play a single memory, which reflects a qualitative change in the American approach in the region. Washington no longer engages in the details of each file, but tends to authorize its regional partners to manage it, according to what serves its main security and economic interests, without direct commitment.
The international response to the Sudanese crisis has been slow and confused, while the Americans have only diplomatic data which does not exceed the limits of the expression of anxiety, or demanding a cease-fire, without offering concrete initiatives. Even their presence as a mediator in the Chair of Jeddah with Saudi Arabia was dull, and he failed to put pressure on the rapid support militia and his supporters in the implementation of what was agreed on May 11, 2023.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi has become one of the regional weight centers affecting the Sudanese file, whether by supporting the rapid support militia – according to the Sudanese government, with which it has increased to the point of cutting ties and describing it as a “aggression” state – or trying to make secret negotiation paths, it is believed that Washington is from the case.
In this context, inside Sudan, with suspicions, is in the position of the previous American administration during the period of President Biden on the war, where many see that the Democrats have not shown sufficient seriousness in the treatment of the crisis, and even certain analysts say that Washington, through its silence or its imprisonment, could have been involved – with regional and international parties – in the creation of an environment that entered the war. This deep feeling of political betrayal prompted great sectors of the Soudians to wait for the return of the Republicans, led by Donald Trump, who had previously declared when he resumed the presidency that he came to “arrest the wars and not to turn them on”.
It seems that there are still bets that the Trump administration, if it returns, would be less involved and more likely to deal with Sudan as a country, not as a crisis. This American retirement opens the door to broader transformations. Sudan, despite its crisis, still maintains elements of geopolitical power which could make it a target for international competition, and not only a geographic margin managed by proxy. Its strategic location on the Red Sea coast, near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, gives it an advanced position in international navigation security equations.
This explains the return of the word of the agreement concluded by Khartoum with Moscow in 2017 to create a marine logistics base at Port Sudan. This agreement, which was addressed to the absence of the elected government, returned to the forehate after the start of the war, in the light of the reports indicating Russian attempts to revitalize it in order to install a permanent foot in the Red Sea, according to the newspaper “Al -harq al -Awsat”.
On the other hand, Türkiye was not absent from the scene. Still in 2017, Ankara concluded an agreement with the government of Khartoum to rehabilitate the island of Suakin, as part of a multidimensional project, which was considered observers as coverage to extend the Turkish military influence in the Red Sea. Despite the freezing of the project after the reversal of the Bashir rule, current transformations can open the way to the rebirth of this partnership, in particular in light of the rapprochement of the Turkish Gulf and the change of position of Ankara in regional policy.
And if Russia and Turkey represent two strategic dimensions in military accounts, then China is the economic extension difficult to ignore. Beijing, who is the largest trading partner in Sudan, is ready to inject enormous investments in infrastructure and energy, as part of the “Belt and Road” initiative. This partnership does not only replace Washington, but also a challenge to its domination, in particular in East Africa, while China seeks to secure trade and provide routes through the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.
In front of this scene, Washington seems to be the location of the booking observer. He realizes that completely ignored Sudan can open the door to its strategic opponents to develop in a very important field, but, at the same time, it does not want to engage directly in a complex crisis without guarantee to achieve its interests. Consequently, one of the scenarios executed is to keep Sudan in the state of a “weakness of weakness”, which allows an American intervention later on more appropriate conditions for Washington, and not according to the aspirations of the Sudanese.
This policy, which is based on waiting and surveillance, according to what we see from the face of truth, puts Sudan in front of a difficult choice: either to remain a paper between others, moves where the movement is intended, or is transformed into an active party capable of managing its site intelligently, and of investing its strategic papers without turning into the trap or dependence. He starts first from the inside; Of the production of a coherent political situation, capable of attacking outside the partner’s position, not to the victim. Then, it extends abroad, by diversifying partnerships, by establishing intelligent balance relationships that preserve the country, and its position is emphasized as vital in the equations of the region and the world.
You are fine and well.
Wednesday May 14, 2025 ad shglawi55@gmail.com
