Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is expected to lobby US President Donald Trump over the UAE’s support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan when the two leaders meet at the White House next week, multiple Arab and western officials have told Middle East Eye.
The move, which follows a phone call last week between Mohammed bin Salman and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) commander Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, would mark a rare direct engagement between the Saudi ruler and Trump on Sudan.
Until now, the conflict, which has been raging since April 2023, has taken a backseat diplomatically to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, tensions with Iran and Syria’s entry into the US-aligned regional fold.
But the RSF’s takeover of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where its fighters have carried out rape and mass slaughter, has brought the war in Sudan into sharp focus.
The UAE has backed the RSF throughout the war using supply lines that run through southeastern Libya, Chad and, increasingly, the port of Bosaso, on Somalia’s Puntland coast. Abu Dhabi continues to deny the allegations.
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Multiple sources monitoring the war told MEE that their internal traffic showed an information war was already under way between UAE and Saudi-backed social media accounts. Accounts linked to the UAE are looking to discredit journalists and organisations that report on RSF atrocities, while Saudi-linked accounts are boosting the same content.
A Sudanese source briefed on the call between Mohammed bin Salman and Burhan said that the general told the crown prince there was no way the war in Sudan would end without US pressure on the UAE. The source told MEE that the Mohammed bin Salman promised Burhan he would raise the issue with Trump.
An Arab diplomat in the region told MEE that Abu Dhabi is anticipating Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington to result in such pressure.
“He [the Saudi crown prince] sees an opportunity to drive a wedge between Trump and MBZ,” a western official familiar with plans to discuss Sudan told MEE, referring to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The Saudi and Emirati embassies did not respond to MEE’s request for comment.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE: Falling out over Sudan?
The 64-year-old ruler of the UAE and the Saudi crown prince, 40, were once very close. Both men run monarchies that are key US security and economic partners. Their Al Saud and Al Nahyan families have also courted Trump directly with investments and are especially close to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who also has business dealings with Qatar.
Almost a decade ago, the UAE and Saudi Arabia engineered a blockade of Qatar and intervened in Yemen’s civil war together. Sudanese fighters, mostly from the RSF, fought for the Saudi and UAE-led coalition in Yemen, and Sudanese sources told MEE that a small number of those fighters are still present in Saudi Arabia, close to the border with Yemen.
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Diplomats in the region said the Saudis and Emiratis are now more like rivals in Yemen, where the UAE backs a separatist government in the south that is at odds with the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government.
After failing to unseat the Houthis, whose attacks on vessels in the Red Sea boosted their popularity in the region, Riyadh has sought a compromise with the group.
Still, Gulf monarchs are usually reluctant to air disagreements with each other at the White House, current and former Arab and US diplomats said.
Soliciting US support for the blockade of Qatar was an exception that the countries have tried to move past as they mend ties.
But Trump’s White House functions differently than others.
The US president mistrusts the US’s rank-and-file diplomats, making senior engagement more important. Saudi Arabia and Turkey had to directly lobby Trump to lift sanctions on Syria. Arab and Muslim leaders also pressed Trump in person at the United Nations General Assembly to move forward with a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The crown prince’s decision to engage Trump directly on Sudan is a recognition of how the administration works. But it also reflects the UAE’s isolation on the war, experts say.
UAE out of step over Sudan
Egypt, an otherwise close partner of the UAE, is stepping up military support for the Sudanese army, alongside Turkey, as MEE recently reported.
“When Egypt and Saudi Arabia align on an issue, you basically have an Arab consensus,” Hussein Ibish, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told MEE. “On Sudan, and other files, the UAE is going against that consensus.”
Ibish added that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are more comfortable airing their differences because of a reduced concern over Iran in their capitals. “If they don’t feel under threat from Iran, they don’t feel the need to cohere on every issue. Therefore, they feel free to compete.”
Sudan sits just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia, but the UAE has been much more active on the ground.
MEE reported in January 2024 that the UAE was supplying the RSF with weapons through a complex network of supply lines and alliances stretching across Libya, Chad and Uganda.
Sudan’s shadow war: Drone strikes reveal escalating tensions between UAE and Turkey
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More recently, MEE reported on the existence of two Emirati bases inside Sudan, as well as the use of Bosaso on Somalia’s coast as part of the UAE’s supply routes to the RSF.
Sudan’s war began in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the SAF, led by Burhan, and the RSF, led by former Janjaweed commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a close ally of the UAE’s better known as Hemedti, spiralled into open conflict.
Saudi Arabia positioned itself as a mediator when the war broke out. Western and Arab diplomats say Riyadh saw an opportunity to put a new face on its diplomacy following its bloody intervention in Yemen.
Indeed, Saudi Arabia was so angry at the UAE’s intervention in Sudan that at first it baulked at allowing Abu Dhabi into the so-called Quad, a group that includes the US and Egypt and is designed to mediate an end to the war, a former US official told MEE.
The Saudis conceded to the UAE’s entry after high-level pressure from Washington, the former official said.
During his call with Mohammed bin Salman, Burhan said that the RSF had turned into a “killing machine”, and that it could not have done this without the UAE. The Sudanese general, whose armed forces have been accused of war crimes, argued in the call that the war is not between “two generals”, and detailed RSF atrocities across the country.
While Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as a mediator to the conflict, multiple Sudanese and western sources have told MEE that Riyadh’s preference throughout the war has been the perceived stability offered by the SAF.
Few US or Arab diplomats expect Sudan to be the main topic of discussion on the crown prince’s visit; with arms deals, artificial intelligence and nuclear energy in focus.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the war and at least 13 million displaced. RSF fighters have been accused of widespread massacres and abuses, including a genocide in Darfur. The SAF has also been accused of war crimes.
