Canadian Analyst Says Sudan Coup An Outside Job

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A prominent Canadian expert described the recent military coup in Sudan “a clandestine regime change” attempt orchestrated from outside the North African country supposedly by the US and its regional allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“I see the events which ultimately transpired less as a domestic coup d’état on the heels of a homegrown protest movement than a classic intervention by the USA and its allies or, more to the point, a clandestine “regime change” which closely mimicked the play book used to install el-Sisi in Egypt as the culmination of its part in the somewhat protracted Arab Fall,” Barry Grossman, who is based on the Indonesian island of Bali, told Tasnim in an interview.

Barry Grossman a political analyst specializing in Public International Law, who has resided in Indonesia for more than 20 years, frequently commenting on current affairs and geopolitics. He graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1984 and from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto in 1987, after which he worked as a commercial litigator with a large Toronto law firm before moving to Australia to take up an academic position with the University of Melbourne Law School and, after that a lectureship at Monash University Law school. In addition he worked for a number of years as a senior litigation consultant to a large, national law firm in Australia and is widely published by refereed Academic journals and as a writer of reference works for the legal profession.

Following is the full text of the interview.

Tasnim: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir was recently removed by a military coup after months of anti-government protests against his three-decade rule. A military council led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is now in power and says it will oversee a transitional period that will last a maximum of two years. What do you think about the latest developments in the African country? How do you predict the future of the developments? Would the military council hand over the power to a democratic government?

Grossman: It would be easy, of course, to let one’s analysis of these events be colored by the fact that al-Bashir came to power himself by a coup d’etat and, perhaps more significantly, by his previous willingness to do Saudi Arabia’s bidding, especially in Yemen. But to be frank, I do not feel that is an appropriate approach, unless people are committed to brushing Atlantic World interference under the carpet while refusing to learn anything about what this portends for others in the region.

Let us not forget that, in recent years, Sudan was itself split in two, with its oil rich southern region become the new, independent state of South Sudan with full Atlantic World backing. Indeed, I do not think it would be overstating the matter to see the emergence of South Sudan as an independent nation in 2011 as being nothing less than the culmination of another massive US heist designed to separate nations which do not fully submit to US hegemony from their natural resources.

We should also not forget that despite longstanding US sanctions and other measures which discriminated against Sudan, including designating Sudan as a state sponsor of terror, al-Bashir’s government nevertheless long cooperated with US counter-terrorism efforts and, at one point, the Bashir government is reputed to have even offered to extradite Osama Bin Laden in return for a US commitment to lift its sanction against Sudan. The offer was of course declined and we all know what happened in the ensuing years.

The main problem I have with recent events stems from reports that only weeks before the recent coup that removed him, President Bashir was pressured by the KSA to put aside his differences with Salah Gosh, OBL’s former handler in Sudan who went on to become Sudan’s point man working with the USA on counter-terrorism, even though Gosh was sidelined and almost imprisoned some years back for making comments which suggested that he was willing to back a coup d’état against al-Bashir.

The first thing Gosh did after President Bashir naively agreed to the Saudi request and appointed Gosh as the head of Sudan’s intelligence apparatus, is travel to Germany where he was reported as having met with MI6 and the head of Mossad, ostensibly to plan a political transition for Sudan after Bashir’s imminent removal.

Of course, it is not entirely surprising that the KSA had apparently elected to betray their once loyal ally, since recent developments involving Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia warming relations with Israel, the still secret Trump “Final Solution” for “resolving” the Palestinian “problem”,  and last but not least,  Bashir’s own apparent moves to normalize relations with Syria’s President Assad, all seem to have left Saudi Arabia’s King-in-waiting and de facto ruler, MBS, decidedly unimpressed with al-Bashir.  

As a result, I see the events which ultimately transpired less as a domestic coup d’état on the heels of a homegrown protest movement than a classic intervention by the USA and its allies or, more to the point, a clandestine “regime change” which closely mimicked the play book used to install el-Sisi in Egypt as the culmination of its part in the somewhat protracted Arab “Fall”.     

Tasnim: According to media reports, there have been some meddlesome measures by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Sudan. However, Sudanese protesters have declared their strong opposition to the two countries. What do you think about the future of relations between Sudan and the two Arab countries and do you think that the next Sudanese government would be an ally of the two?

Grossman: Well, I am not convinced that even the protest movement was what it has been portrayed to be, any more than I was convinced by similar claims relating to protests in Libya, Egypt, Syria and elsewhere during the carefully engineered Arab Fall which, despite the havoc, destruction, and bloodshed, was so celebrated by the Atlantic World, bearing in mind that it is never very difficult for foreign agents to stir up a critical mass of civic unrest in nations suffering under the burden of long term Atlantic World manipulation, intervention, sanctions, and more generally, unfairness in all matters related to trade.

In any case, what exactly drove protesters to take a stand if not domestic economic problems which inexorably followed years of US sanctions and the theft of 75% of Sudan’s oil revenues by forcing the Independence of South Sudan on the majority? 

Tasnim: As you know, Sudan is part of Saudi Arabia's disastrous military campaign against Yemen. Given that a huge number of the Saudi-led coalition forces fighting in Yemen are Sundanese, what do you think about the effect of developments in Sudan on the protracted war on Yemen?

Grossman: Well I suppose we will know the answer to this question soon enough. But I certainly will not be surprised to see Sudan once again taking a far more active military effort in support of the belligerent and criminal Saudi-US-UK and UN backed war on the people of Yemen.