Saudi Arabia's defacto ruler Mohammed bin Salman is set to press U.S. President Donald Trump to personally intervene to help end the war in Sudan during talks in Washington on Tuesday, five people familiar with the matter said.
The sources — two Arab diplomats and three western diplomats — said the Saudi Crown Prince believed Trump's direct pressure was needed to break a logjam in talks to end more than two and a half years of war, pointing to his work to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza last month.
The conflict erupted in 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It has caused ethnically-charged bloodletting, widespread destruction and mass displacement, drawing in foreign powers and threatening to split Sudan.
In raising the issue with Trump, Saudi Arabia is seeking to appeal to the U.S. president's view of himself as a peacemaker, the sources said, with Trump having said repeatedly that he was seeking a Nobel Peace Prize for his work to address global conflicts. The Saudi plan to discuss Sudan with Trump was earlier reported by the Middle East Eye website.
For Saudi Arabia, a resolution to the conflict is linked to national security, with hundreds of kilometres of Sudanese coastline lying opposite the kingdom's Red Sea coast.
Asked last week about the UAE's role in the conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced frustration with the Quad process, though he stopped short of holding any side responsible.
The RSF earlier this month accepted a U.S-backed humanitarian ceasefire proposal after an international outcry over accounts that it had killed large groups of civilians as it overran al-Fashir.
The army has not agreed to the ceasefire, which could provide a window for more deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
Posted by John3262005
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There is a non-zero chance this leads to an West Sudan and East Sudan, not to be confused with South Sudan.