The United Nations Security Council has given its members one month to respond to the United States' proposal to expand the arms embargo across Sudan. This decision was made after a 30-day extension of existing restrictions, and Washington believes that this extension provides a basis for further negotiations.
Insistence on Fundamental Changes
U.S. representative Jeffrey Bartos has stated that a long-term technical extension is not an option, and during the negotiations, some council members have firmly supported the expansion of sanctions to all of Sudan, while others have called for maintaining the current status. In this context, the United States has proposed a one-month extension to provide "the necessary time and space" for negotiating fundamental changes to the sanctions regime.
Britain has also supported efforts to strengthen the sanctions regime and welcomed additional time for negotiations. However, Russia has firmly opposed the expansion of sanctions beyond the Darfur region. The United States has increased its pressure for the approval of a comprehensive arms embargo in Sudan, believing that cutting off access to weapons and foreign support is essential to ending the civil war.
The war in Sudan has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, creating one of the world's largest humanitarian crises. Estimates suggest that 20 million people in the country are suffering from hunger. While General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, emphasizes the continuation of the war until the defeat of the Rapid Support Forces, repeated efforts by the United States and regional powers to establish a ceasefire have failed.
Recently, Michael Walts, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mosaad Boulus, a senior advisor to former President Donald Trump on Arab and African affairs, expressed their views on this issue in an article, emphasizing the need to reduce the flow of weapons to Sudan. This American intervention comes after an independent UN fact-finding mission warned that foreign weapons and military technologies are bolstering both sides of the conflict.
Investigations by this mission indicate that the Sudanese Armed Forces are using drones and long-range foreign munitions, which provide them with new capabilities to attack civilian targets. Meanwhile, reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post have revealed that the Sudanese Armed Forces have not only used chemical weapons in the conflict but have also constructed a hidden stockpile that they later attempted to conceal.
