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Sudan's Split with Iran Boosts Saudi Camp

(Wall Street Journal) Yaroslav Trofimov - The compound that once housed Iran's cultural center in Khartoum, Sudan, has overgrown with weeds. The Iranian diplomats have departed. For more than two decades, Sudan was the Iranian regime's best friend in the Sunni Arab world. Now, that friendship between two rogue states has unraveled. In late 2014, President Omar al-Bashir ordered the network of Iran's cultural centers shut down, ostensibly on the grounds that they were propagating Shiite Islam in a country that has virtually no Shiites. Then, in April, he unexpectedly joined Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, sending Sudanese warplanes to bomb pro-Iranian Houthi forces, and sought to nurture close ties with Egypt's new ruler, President al-Sisi. "This regime cannot really survive without the support of the rich Arab countries," explained Abdel Ghaffar Ahmed, a professor at the University of Khartoum. Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil income after the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It is reliant on billions of dollars in remittances by Sudanese workers in Saudi Arabia and other GCC monarchies.
2015-08-14 00:00:00
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