The Biden Administration and Sudan War..The Horse-Drawn Cart
By: Al-Rikabi Hassan Yagoub
In late July 2024, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, informed the Sudanese government that he would visit Sudan on August 8 of the same year, accompanied by the Director of the US Agency for International Development, Ambassador Samantha Power, to discuss ways to make the US initiative to end the war in Sudan a success through the Geneva negotiations, which were scheduled for the fourteenth of the same month.
However, Perriello set a strange condition for completing his visit, which was that the negotiations with the Sudanese side would take place at Port Sudan Airport and under heavy guard by a special US security team, justifying this by the lack of stability in the country.
This was rejected by the Sudanese government, which led to the cancellation of the visit.
However, after nearly four months had passed since the cancellation of that visit, the US envoy returned and requested to visit Sudan, and the Sudanese government agreed to his request, which he did not impose any conditions on this time, which is considered an implicit acknowledgment – in the sense of violation – of the legitimacy of the government and that the security situation is stable and there is no reason for fear and anxiety.
The visit took place last Monday, where Perriello met with the Head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, 1st. Lt. Gen. Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, in his office in the interim capital, Port Sudan.
He also met with the Deputy Head of the Sovereignty Council, Lt. Gen. Malik Agar, and held talks with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Ali Youssef. He also met with Chieftain Bahar al-Din of Masalit tribe, which is one of the ethnic groups of the Darfur region of African origin and their capital is the city of (Al-Geneina), Located in the far west of the Darfur region and adjacent to Sudan’s borders with Chad.
This ethnic group has been subjected to ethnic genocide, displacement, and rape of women, and hundreds of them have been buried alive at the hands of the Rapid Support Militia, which has occupied the city since the outbreak of the war until now.
It is a meeting that did not go beyond consolation and showing sorrow and regret after it was too late
According to Ambassador Mohamed Abdullah Idris, Sudan’s Ambassador to Washington, the US envoy’s talks to Sudan “touched on a roadmap to end the war, how to deliver humanitarian aid, and mend the social fabric, in addition to the political process as a way out.
“A final post-war visit.”
Many observers of Sudanese affairs describe Periello’s recent visit as a “public relations” visit that comes in the context of the final review of the files in President Biden’s office files before his departure from the Oval Office for good.
The Biden administration and the Democratic Party wanted to leave a mark that would be credited to them in the Sudan file, which they did not deal with seriously and in which they went along with small, newly born regional powers that were the reason for fueling the crisis with financial, logistical, military and propaganda support for the Rapid Support Militia.
They did not deal with the file as a superpower that should view the international political arena from a comprehensive perspective that makes preserving international security and peace a supreme value and a lofty goal that they seek to achieve based on the fact that they possess all the necessary and essential resources and capabilities to achieve it.
The Biden administration could have managed the crisis in Sudan more effectively and more professionally, leading to a satisfactory solution that would be a model to be emulated regionally at least.
However, it preferred to score an own goal at the last moment, as it wanted to divert the ball away from him.
Perriello stated in his meeting with the Sudanese Foreign Minister that he did not see a political or military future for the Rapid Support Militia in Sudan.
Did the Biden administration suddenly discover, as it gathered its papers and belongings to leave the White House and after 19 months of war in Sudan and the accompanying atrocities, gross violations and horrific massacres committed by the Rapid Support Militia against civilians, that this militia is not fit for any political or military role in the future of Sudan..!
Didn’t the Biden administration, with all its power, advisory institutions, early sensing tools, decision-making tools, and think-tanks that provide it with documented information, reach the truth that there is no future for the Rapid Support Militia in Sudan, so it did not throw its weight behind the “framework agreement” that was the main reason for igniting the fire of war!
Didn’t the Biden administration realize on the eve of April 15, 2023 that the consequences would be dire while it blessed the plan of the Rapid Support Militia and its political wing (the Forces of Freedom and Change) to seize power by force the next morning!
Can anyone believe that the (only) superpower saw things from the same narrow angle that the Rapid Support Militia and its defeated political wing “Freedom and Change” viewed it, that the matter was just a walk in the park and that the operation would only take an hour of the day!
Or did it realize the enormity of the consequences and that it was an ill-considered adventure, but it wanted to do so to protect the interests of some of its small regional friends, so it gave the green light to implement it to appease them.
No one can be certain of the true aims and objectives that made the Biden administration follow the dreams and delusions of a barbaric militia, and the dreams of ignorant activists who entered the political arena without knowledge, experience, or vision.
They believe that democracy can be brought about through ammunition boxes, not through ballot boxes. Behind them stand forces that suffer from ego-inflation syndrome and are afflicted with megalomania, and believe that money can turn the impossible into reality and a dream into truth, and that the gun is the only means of preserving interests, and that relations of cooperation, good neighborliness, and respect for the sovereignty of states are nothing but myths of the ancients that were written by the United Nations and are of no use.
The Biden administration missed an opportunity that was available to it throughout the months of war in Sudan to lead the crisis vehicle to get it safely to safety without great cost, and then write on its slate this achievement that it stopped the bloodshed and spared the Sudanese those horrific massacres, displacement, migration, and asylum, and on top of that, resentment against it and holding it a large part of the responsibility alongside the Rapid Support Militia..
But it chose to be (dragged) by the militia vehicle and its political wing.. So its harvest was failure..
It is the cart that led the horses!
Although it is too early to determine the direction that President-elect Donald Trump will take regarding the Sudanese file after his official inauguration as President of the United States in January of next year, it can be said in general that he will not follow the same wrong path that his predecessor took, which led to failure.
It is likely that the next Trump administration will take another path that is less costly and shorter in distance for several reasons, the most important of which is that Republicans are known for their pragmatism in foreign policy and not ideology. The former is realistic and the latter may touch the imagination on many occasions.
Also, Trump’s relationship with Russia is good, and Sudan maintains excellent relations with Russia. The latest evidence of this was last Sunday, when Russia used its veto in the UN Security Council in favor of Sudan against the British draft calling for “an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan and the protection of civilians.”
This draft is rejected by Sudan and is seen as booby-trapped and opens the door to the intervention of international forces in Sudan, which is a violation of the state’s sovereignty and the legitimacy of the government, and the return of the Rapid Support Militia and its political wing to the scene again.
The Russian veto was greatly welcomed by
The Sudanese government and Sudanese public opinion, so Trump’s dealings with the Sudanese file will be with a soft and calculated understanding with Russia, like other files in which there are American-Russian intersections.