UAE assures US that it is not “now” transferring weapons to Sudan’s RSF

MADRID Dec. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have assured the US Government of Joe Biden that “now” they are not transferring weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), within the framework of the conflict with the Sudanese Army, which broke out in April of 2023 and has left thousands of victims.

“Despite reports we have received suggesting that the opposite has occurred to date, the UAE has informed the Administration that they are not transferring weapons to the RSF and will not do so in the future,” explained the coordinator of the US National Council for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, in a letter to Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

In this sense, it has announced that the Administration “will work with the relevant departments and agencies to monitor the indicators of the credibility and reliability of these guarantees provided” and has committed to providing an updated evaluation before January 17, in the last week of Biden as a tenant of the White House.

McGurk stressed that the United States “has been a world leader in attempts to end this crisis, leading negotiation efforts twice in Saudi Arabia and once in Switzerland,” highlighting that the UAE “used its influence to bring the Army Sudanese to the negotiations in Switzerland, while (they) boycotted the talks.

Likewise, the US official has emphasized that the UAE “has also been a humanitarian contributor during the war and other conflicts around the world”, being a “dominant humanitarian actor in (the) Gaza Strip, as one of the few countries operating on the ground, providing up to $828 million (€800 million) from October 2023, 42 percent of the total aid provided during that period.

Following this explanation, Van Hollen said he was “glad that the Administration has worked” with him to “obtain guarantees that the UAE will not provide weapons to RSF killers in Sudan and that the Administration will monitor compliance with those guarantees.” “.

The senator presented in the Upper House just a month ago a bill that sought to stop the sale of US weapons to the UAE until Washington could demonstrate that Abu Dhabi was not arming the paramilitaries, while fellow Democrat Sara Jacobs did the same. in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that the Emiratis are an important partner of the Americans in the Middle East.

The war between the Army and the RSF broke out in April 2023 due to strong discrepancies regarding the integration process of the paramilitary group – now declared a rebel – within the Armed Forces, a situation that caused the derailment of the open transition after the overthrow of Omar Hasan al Bashir’s regime in 2019.