Russia, China and Iran Must Not Seize Control of Sudan
by Con Coughlin • May 16, 2024 at 5:30 am
Moscow has undertaken a radical change in its involvement in the Sudanese conflict, with the Kremlin now providing al-Burhan's Islamist-aligned SAF its "uncapped" military support.
In return, Moscow is hoping the Sudanese leader will honour a deal struck in 2020 to allow Russia to establish a naval base in Port Sudan, a move that would enable the Russian navy to threaten directly Western trade routes passing through the Red Sea.
If, as now seems likely, both Russia and Iran, together with China, succeed in deepening their foothold in Sudan, as well as gaining access to key maritime bases such as Port Sudan, they will be in a strong position to challenge the West's ability to protect key shipping routes in the Red Sea.
Iran's presence in Sudan, moreover, will present a major challenge to Israel: it will complete Tehran's strategic encirclement of the Israelis.
The Western powers must act urgently to protect this pivotal African state from falling into the hands of hostile autocratic regimes, such as Iran, Russia and China, which seek to use Sudan as a base from which to maintain their assault of the West and its key allies in the region.
A modern-day "Scramble for Africa" is taking place in war-torn Sudan, where an unholy collection of hostile autocratic states, namely Iran, Russia and China, are competing for a stake in the country's key resources, especially the all-important maritime base of Port Sudan in the Red Sea.
Back in the late nineteenth century, the original "Scramble for Africa" was the term coined to describe the efforts of European colonial powers such as Britain, France and Germany to expand their influence throughout the African continent. Their campaign of expansion proved so successful that by the outbreak of the First World War, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained free from the shackles of European colonisation.
