Iran resumes diplomatic ties with Sudan after eight-year break

Sudan remains mired in a civil war fueled by competing Arab powers that may have killed 150,000 people

News Desk - The Cradle 

Sudanese army cheif Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan received the credentials of the Iranian ambassador (Photo credit: Sovereignty Council website)

Sudan and Iran have exchanged ambassadors after an eight-year break in diplomatic relations, Al Jazeera reported on 22 July.

Sudan’s de-facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, received Hassan Shah Hosseini, the new Iranian ambassador, in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on Sunday.

Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh, Sudan’s new ambassador to Iran, arrived in Tehran the same day.  

This is “the beginning of a new phase in the course of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Hussein al-Amin said.

The Sudanese government broke off relations with the Islamic Republic in 2016 in support of Saudi Arabia. At the time, Saudi and Iranian relations ruptured after Saudi authorities executed a prominent Saudi Shia cleric, and Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran in response.

But Tehran and Riyadh agreed to restore relations in March 2023 in a deal brokered by Beijing.

This opened the door for Iran and Sudan to agree to restore diplomatic relations last October.

Sudanese army chief Burhan rose to power after the 2019 ousting of longtime Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and later cemented his position in a 2021 coup. 

Sudan signed the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel in January 2021.

The Red Sea city of Port Sudan has become Sudan’s de facto seat of government since the start of the Sudanese civil war in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023.

Backed by Saudi Arabia, Burhan leads the government forces in the fight against a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and backed by the UAE.

Estimates of the dead after over a year of fighting vary widely, with some sources stating 14,000 killed and others suggesting as many as 150,000 deaths.

“Both [Saudi Arabia and the UAE] seek economic and strategic goals in Sudan – the country being a stepping stone from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa,” Dr Nabeel Khoury, the former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Yemen, told The New Arab last year.