Port Sudan rent skyrockets amid renewed Iranian diplomatic presence

Residential real estate rents in Port Sudan have surged to unprecedented levels, according to reports yesterday. The soaring rental prices are attributed to the renewed Iranian diplomatic presence in the city. The Iranian embassy has rented 17 apartments in Port Sudan for its staff, driving up demand and costs.

A real estate owner, preferring to remain anonymous, told Radio Dabanga yesterday that the rent for a furnished three-room apartment reached SDG75,000 per day, totalling over SDG2 million per month.

Following the deaths of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash on Sunday, Iran’s foothold in Sudan is now more important than ever.

Iran has denied seeking to establish a naval base on Port Sudan’s strategic Red Sea coast, following a similar denial from Sudan’s Foreign Ministry. 

The denials come in response to a Wall Street Journal report on March 3, which cited a senior Sudanese intelligence official alleging that Sudan rejected Iran’s proposal to establish a permanent naval base in exchange for a warship.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kinani dismissed the report as “baseless and politically motivated” during a news conference yesterday. Sudan’s acting Minister of Foreign Affairs also refuted the story, calling it “lies” and “fabricated.”

The Wall Street Journal report suggested that Sudan turned down Iran’s offer to avoid upsetting the USA and Israel. 

Despite this, Iran has supplied the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with Mohajer-6 drones, which experts believe have bolstered the SAF’s operations in Omdurman.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claim to have neutralised several of these drones.

While Iran’s navy has had a presence in the Red Sea for years, it currently has no naval base in the area. Although two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan in 2021, Iran denies seeking to establish a naval base in Sudan.