US again flags support for Sudan's warring parties by regional countries
Washington, DC, US (PANA) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has again flagged the involvement of regional elements in Sudan's bloody war and said the immediate goal is the cessation of hostilities.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington, DC, on Friday, Mr. Rubio said the two main sides in the war – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clearly have supporters from outside of Sudan’s borders that are involved, adding that they have been “engaging with those countries”.
Mr. Rubio said: “It’s not just countries that are providing them weaponry and equipment; it’s also countries that are providing transshipment, particularly to the RSF, to receive weapons – in some cases advanced weaponry.”
He stated that neither side has their own factories for the most part saying all these weapons are acquired from abroad.
“They have to come from somewhere else and they have to come through somewhere else. So someone is allowing it to be shipped in and someone is actually shipping it. So we’ve had the right and appropriate conversations with all sides of this conflict because that is their leverage. Without their support, neither side can continue.”
Mr. Rubio said the US Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, just returned from the region, meeting with the Egyptians, the Saudis, the UAE, and others.
The US has also been in collaboration with the UK on some of this. “Our goal, the immediate goal we have, is a cessation of hostilities, okay, a humanitarian truce going into the new year that allows humanitarian organisations to be able to deliver aid to the people in great distress.”
He noted that right now, “that’s not possible”, citing reports of humanitarian convoys actually being struck on their way in.
“But what we said to everybody on it is that what’s happening there is horrifying, it’s atrocious; that one day the story of what’s actually happened there is going to be known and everyone involved is going to look bad.”
Mr. Rubio expressed regret that the warring parties do not live up to what they commit to.
“They’ll agree to anything and implement nothing; and oftentimes what happens is when one side feels like they’re making advances in the battlefield, they don’t necessarily see the need to concede at that point because they believe they’re on the verge of achieving some success on the ground, and a truce would set them back.”
Mr. Rubio again emphasised none of these groups can operate without the support they’re receiving externally, “so we have been engaging with the countries involved from the outside to ensure that they are at the table and that they are pushing for the same outcome that we want, which is, phase one, a humanitarian truce that at a minimum allows us to deal with the humanitarian calamity that occurs there”.
He expressed the hope that while that truce is ongoing, they can focus on the other elements that led to the conflict and help to resolve some of those.
“But our number one priority we’re focused on, 99 percent of our focus, is this humanitarian truce and achieving that as soon as possible, and we think that the new year and the upcoming holidays are a great opportunity for both sides to agree to that. And we’re really pushing very hard in that regard,” he said.
-0- PANA MA/RA 20Dec2025
