A critical reading of the international quartet meeting:

States are not built from scratch, nor through alliances aimed at protecting foreign interests.

Issued by : Khartoum center for dialogue.
Date: July 12,2025.

Introduction:

At a critical stage in Sudan,the international quartet meeting, led by the United States, with the participation of Britain , Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is due to be held soon.

At first glance,it appears to be a peace rescue initiative or the start of a solution. However a deeper look reveals that such initiatives, although cloaked in rhetoric of “ peace and civilian transition, only imply pragmatic approaches that only recognize influence, not the rebuilding of state .

Sudan is not only experiencing a war crisis, but a foundational one, and any approach that goes beyond this fact will only exasperate the situation and not solve the crisis.

First: the quartet …from conflict management to legitimizing dependency.

The quartet approach does not represent a purely Sudanese settlement, but rather a platform for power sharing between international and regional powers that view Sudan in terms of its strategic location rather than a national entity.

Therefore, it recycles the same failed tools: I.e an imposed settlement arranged by parties that does not represent the real societal base.

It treats the “ civilian transition “ as a temporary political function managed from abroad, instead of a profound foundational process built from within.

Second: the problem of the international approach is that it totally ignores the national dimension.

The solutions currently being proposed do not address the essence of the Sudanese crisis:

Peace cannot
be established without a state and no state can not be built without an agreed upon social contract.

External approaches aim to adjust the balance of interests, rather than building a stable and viable national structure.

State-building is not achieved through alliances that exclude local societies , but rather through empowering the community to express itself, its interests and its identity.

Third: the Khartoum dialogue center’s vision—- towards an independent national foundational project.

We, at the center, do not merely adopt the rejection of foreign intervention as a slogan. Instead , we propose a practical and philosophical alternative based on:
1- establishing national legitimacy from the base not from the top.

Restoring the concept of true representation of Sudanese society, away from the circle of imported and domesticated elite.

Linking political legitimacy to the ability to embody a unifying national identity that does not serve foreign agendas.

2- developing a new Sudanese narrative about State and sovereignty.
Such narrative should emphasize that Sudan’s security is not built on fleeting alliances, but rather on a people-oriented national project.

Linking identity, resources and sovereignty as pillars of national security.

3- cementing the internal front through devising a deep civic awareness system .

Foreign interventions can only be halted through a societal, intellectual and organizational renaissance that redefines national interests.
Building an established mobilization discourse that reshapes the relationship between citizens and the State based on rights and participation not patronage and dependency.

4- an initial action map : to achieve this we propose the following:

Launching a public awareness campaign under the slogan “ Sudan is not a business transaction “.
“A State could not be built at the quartet negotiating table”.
Preparing a series of analytical papers that review:

The background of international interventions.

Methods for building an independent Sudanese political project.

Calling for a founding ( not elitist) community conference to formulate a comprehensive vision for establishing the State fro the bottom up.

Conclusion:

The quartet will not build a State in Sudan because it doesn’t recognize the Sudanese people as the real stakeholder to determine their own destiny, but rather as a subject for negotiations.

Sudan will not be saved by parties from abroad, but it will rise from within the homeland when society changes from being a spectator to a founder, from being a victim to a partner and from being in the margins to the center.

Towards a Sudanese State with true sovereignty, a unified identity and independent institutions that express the will of the people and not the will of agents.