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A ministerial meeting aimed at addressing the war in Sudan, involving the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, was postponed on Tuesday.
This decision came after a disagreement over the final joint statement, according to two diplomatic sources.
The core of the dispute lay with Egypt and the UAE, considered major external actors in Sudan’s devastating conflict. They failed to agree on the role that the warring parties—the Sudanese regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—would play in any future peace process.
The war, which began in April 2023, has already caused tens of thousands of deaths and led to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
An Arab diplomat, speaking anonymously, stated that the meeting, the latest effort to pave the way for peace talks, was cancelled due to “an unresolved disagreement.”
The diplomat claimed the UAE pushed for a last-minute change to exclude both the army and the RSF from the future transitional process, a stipulation deemed “totally unacceptable” by others.
Egypt, a historical ally of the Sudanese army, emphasises the need to preserve Sudan’s national institutions.
Conversely, another source close to the negotiations indicated that the US circulated a draft accepted by all parties, including the UAE, but Egypt rejected the clause stating that the transitional period should not be controlled by any of the warring factions. This led to the US decision to postpone the meeting.
Previous rounds of negotiations sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia have been unsuccessful in ending the bloody conflict, which experts warn has already spilt into neighbouring regions.
The United Nations has repeatedly cautioned about external forces fuelling the war in Sudan, a country rich in coveted gold deposits—mostly channelled to the UAE—as well as vast arable land and a significant Red Sea coastline.
Despite being close regional allies, Cairo and Abu Dhabi find themselves on opposing sides in the Sudan war.
The UAE has been widely accused of arming the RSF, violating a UN arms embargo, though Abu Dhabi has consistently denied these allegations.
The conflict has resulted in mass atrocities against civilians and has fractured the country.
The army currently controls the centre, north, and east, while the RSF is consolidating its hold on the west and south, recently declaring a parallel government in areas under its control.
