UNSC postpones Sudan complaint against UAE per UK request
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The Sudanese ambassador claims that the UAE was not happy with the Sudanese complaint, which the UAE denies, and pressured the UNSC members to postpone the meeting.
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Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, April 6, 2024. (AP)
It has been reported that the UN Security Council has delayed negotiations on Sudan’s complaint against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) until next month May, at the request of the UK.
The meeting was supposed to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, arms flow, and Sudan’s accusations of UAE aggression through alleged support for paramilitary forces against the Sudanese army.
Speaking to Sudanese state television, Sudan’s Ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss, argued that it was due to a procedural reason after a missing English translation of the complaint, noting that the delay “won’t prevent the UAE from being condemned,” and that it would move to Mozambique’s presidency in May.
However, Idriss called out the British intervention, the penholder for Sudan (the country currently responsible for drafting resolutions on Sudan), saying it was “arbitrary and lacking neutrality.”
AFP cited a diplomatic source saying: "Yesterday, our permanent representative to the United Nations [Al-Harith Idriss] submitted a request for an urgent session of the Security Council to discuss the UAE's aggression against the Sudanese people and the provision of weapons and equipment to the terrorist militia".
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The UAE is not a 'happy camper'
The original session was planned to have non-member states invited but the meeting format was changed to closed consultations, thus making participation by non-member states like Sudan no longer allowed.
It is worth noting that the Sudanese ambassador claimed that the UAE was not happy with the complaint and pressured the UNSC members to postpone the meeting, which further comes after a Sunday report in The Times paper indicating that the UAE canceled ministerial meetings with the UK as a result of lack of support for the UN accusations against their country.
The UAE constantly denied having anything to do with the conflict in Sudan, calling the allegations “baseless” in a letter to the Security Council, which their representative, Lana Nusseibeh, claims are a distraction from the country's humanitarian crisis.
Last August, the UAE denied a report that claimed weapons were discovered in aid shipments sent to Sudanese war refugees, asserting that it remains neutral in the conflict.
In response to inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, the government of the UAE stated that it supports a peaceful resolution to the situation in Sudan and "seeks to provide all forms of support to alleviate humanitarian suffering." It claimed it had built a field hospital in the neighboring country of Chad and provided some 2,000 metric tons of humanitarian goods, including food and medical supplies, to those afflicted by the fighting.
The fighting in Sudan broke out in April last year between the regular army, headed by its leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Amid a pending RSF attack against the city of al-Fasher in North Darfur, which threatens the lives of thousands of sheltering people, the Security Council expressed "deep concern" and called for the de-escalation of the crisis and hostilities to curb the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Read next: Arab Parties Conference slams US, 'Israel', UAE interference in Sudan
The Security Council urged all member states to avoid external intervention in the conflict and encouraged them to back initiatives that would achieve enduring peace. Additionally, it reiterated the existence of an arms embargo on Sudan since 2004 to all relevant parties.
