The United States stressed on Monday that it would push forward with starting talks on the devastating war in Sudan this week, even without the Sudanese government.
The US-brokered talks in Switzerland are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but Washington has received no confirmation from Sudanese forces that they intend to attend.
The Sudanese government, whose army has been at war with paramilitaries for nearly 16 months, has expressed concerns about the US actions.
“We have spoken extensively with the SAF (the Sudanese Armed Forces), but they have not yet given us any commitment” as to whether we would participate in the planned talks, said Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan.
However, “we will proceed with this event this week and that has been made clear to the parties,” he said at a press conference at the US mission in Geneva.
Perriello said this round of negotiations could last up to ten days. For security reasons, he did not name the location in Switzerland.
Last month, the United States invited the warring sides in Sudan to ceasefire talks co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, more than a year after fighting broke out between the regular army led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The RSF under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo immediately accepted the US invitation.
“RSF has given its unconditional consent to participate,” confirmed Perriello.
There can be “no formal mediation between the two parties if SAF does not participate. In this case, we will continue to focus on the international and technical elements,” he said.
Dispute over the UAE
Previously, talks had taken place in Saudi Arabia between a Sudanese delegation and US mediators on the conditions for the participation of the Sudanese government.
They ended “without agreement,” Sudan’s Minerals Minister Mohammed Abu Namo, the head of the delegation, said on Sunday.
The Sudanese government said late Sunday that “further talks” were needed to participate in the upcoming ceasefire talks.
Sudan’s Media Minister Graham Abdel Qader said the Sudanese delegation had noted the “failure of the United States to put pressure on the rebel militia to commit to implementing the Jeddah Declaration,” which was negotiated last year to protect civilians.
The US delegation in Jeddah, led by Perriello, also “provided no justification for establishing a new platform” outside the previous negotiating strand led by the US and Saudi Arabia, which had only led to short-lived ceasefires last year and was immediately broken by both sides.
Abdel Qader said the government “rejects any new observers or participants” – especially after Washington “insisted on the participation of the United Arab Emirates as an observer”.
The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting the RSF.
“Having Egypt and the United Arab Emirates at the negotiating table is an incredibly important potential tool to ensure that there is not just an agreement on paper, but that when they are present, they can become more of a guarantor of the kind of results that the Sudanese people are demanding,” Perriello said.
“This is a great gathering of experts and we will move forward. If SAF changes its mind and wants to participate, we will be able to have that mediated component.”
