Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, Minister of State, welcomed the United States’ statement on efforts to achieve peace in Sudan, including its call for an immediate and unconditional humanitarian truce, and a commitment to a comprehensive political dialogue leading to a transition toward a civilian government.
He commended the leadership of US President Donald Trump in preventing Sudan from descending into further extremism, fragmentation, and a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. He reaffirmed the UAE’s continued support for international efforts to end the war in Sudan and its commitment to working alongside partners toward a political solution that ends the suffering of the Sudanese people.
He also commended the efforts of Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, and Dr Massad Boulos, US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs, to encourage the parties to cease hostilities and strengthen prospects for reaching a political solution to the crisis in Sudan.
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He further called for an expansion of the existing UN arms embargo across the whole territory of Sudan, as a necessary measure to halt hostilities and ensure the protection of civilians.
US calls for humanitarian truce
Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said what is happening in Sudan is growing increasingly frustrating, calling for a humanitarian ceasefire that “we can build on”.
Rubio added that there would be no progress in addressing the conflict in Sudan until the external actors he said were driving the war were prepared to use their influence.
This month, the US refused to give Sudan’s de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a visa to travel to New York to address the UN General Assembly.
Burhan, whose army has fought the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, was scheduled to address the UN on Wednesday. He has addressed the assembly before, twice since the war broke out.
One diplomatic source said the United States, which has repeatedly pushed for Sudan truce talks, had “conditioned the visa on Burhan accepting a three-month truce”, which the government says would only allow the RSF to regroup and attack.
The US State Department, in a statement that did not mention the visa issue, said Tuesday that neither the army, the RSF, “nor their respective leaders, represent legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan”.
With both sides rejecting Washington’s call for a humanitarian truce, “we will seek to raise the cost of continued conflict on all belligerents and the networks which fuel the conflict,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
UN chief Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned” that the visa had not been issued, his spokesman said.
The United States has tried, along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, to bring Burhan and his former deputy RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to the negotiating table.
Burhan’s internationally recognised government cemented power in a 2021 coup with Daglo’s support as his right-hand man, but the pair fell out in a power struggle.
Since 2023, their war has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, and caused the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)
Source: Khaleej Times
