Iran govt welcomes Sudan’s request to restore bilateral relations

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi received Sudan’s acting Foreign Affairs Minister Ali El Sadig in Tehran on Monday, confirming the restoration of their relations after a hiatus of seven years.

The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported yesterday that President Raisi spoke about the existing potential in the two countries and their mutual will to develop the exchange of “political, economic and cultural interactions”.

The Sudanese and Iranian embassies in Tehran and Khartoum will be opened again.

Raisi further pointed to the recent developments in the region, emphasising that “keeping distance from the Zionist regime is one of the basic policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. He lamented the “negligence on the part of some Islamic countries” regarding this basic policy of Iran has caused heavy losses to the Islamic Umma*.

He further condemned the normalisation of relations between some Islamic countries with Israel, as he considers Zionism to be “opposed to the identity and nature of these countries”.

The Sudanese FA minister said he appreciated Iran’s political support to the people of Sudan and emphasised his country’s interest in developing relations and increase economic and commercial cooperation with Iran.

In October last year, Sudan and Iran announced their decision to restore diplomatic relations, marking the end of a seven-year hiatus. Two months later, Radio Dabanga reported that a SAF delegation allegedly visited Iran to purchase Iranian-made combat drones. In end January, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said they downed a Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone in Khartoum state.

Khartoum severed ties with Iran in 2016, following the deterioration of Saudi-Iranian relations. Khartoum had fostered good relations with Iran since the regime under Omar Al Bashir came into power via a coup d’état in 1989. Yet, the relations cooled down in March 2016, after Sudan opted to support Saudi Arabia in its military campaign against Shiite Houthi insurgents in Yemen.

In end 2020, Sudan normalised its relations with Israel. The Council of Ministers headed by PM Abdallah Hamdok denied a connection with the USA removing Sudan from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. In February that year, the chair of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Entebbe in Uganda.

* The Arabic word umma (also ummah) means a group of people or a community sharing common and coherent features like language, race, religion, culture, and economic interest, with a common leader, goal, and constitution. It has become the Arabic term for ‘nation’. In reference to Islam, umma refers to the whole Muslim world, or the community of believers.