Qatar-GCC crisis unsettles Sudan
The government in Khartoum is caught in the middle of the bitter dispute between Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Illustrative of the extent to which Sudan and Qatar have deepened bilateral relations, Khartoum is not joining Riyadh and its allies in punishing Doha for allegedly promoting terrorism. Yet, for Sudan, which relies heavily on economic support from Qatar as well as the three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members confronting Doha, the council’s diplomatic row and its timing are dreadful.
On June 6, the Khartoum government offered to pursue “reconciliation” efforts between Qatar and the Sunni Arab states that have severed ties with Doha. Expressing “deep concern” about the standoff, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry demanded that regional states “work together to overcome this dispute.” Unsettling for Khartoum is that the row threatens to directly undermine Sudan’s national interests in several ways given its foreign policy history and the country’s current domestic political environment.
After 1989, when President Omar al-Bashir ascended to power, Sudan’s links with al-Qaeda and other extremists heightened tensions between Khartoum and various Western and Arab governments. The economic pain of US sanctions, first imposed in 1997, prompted Sudan to make moves, which the US State Department recognized, to distance itself from militant Islamist organizations and cooperate with the West’s counterterrorism initiatives within a larger effort aimed at bringing Khartoum out of isolation.
Geopolitically, Sudan has shifted toward Washington’s orbit by aligning more closely with the United States' Sunni Arab allies over the past few years. Nine months after contributing to the US-backed, Riyadh-led military campaign launched against Iranian-sponsored Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2015, Khartoum joined other Sunni Arab capitals in severing diplomatic ties with Iran, despite years spent nurturing a strategic partnership with Tehran.
