News- Middle East: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is expected to lobby US President Donald Trump over the UAE’s support for the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan when the two rulers meet at the White House next week, a media report says.

The move, which follows a phone call last week between 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.

A Sudanese source briefed on the call told Middle East Eye that the general told the crown prince there was no way the war in Sudan would end without US pressure on the UAE.

Bin Salman promised Burhan he would raise the issue with Trump, the source added.

An Arab diplomat in the region said 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 said, referring to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Until now, the conflict, which has been raging since April 2023, has taken a backseat diplomatically to Israel's brutal aggression against Palestinians and genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.

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.

More recently, media outlets 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.

Abu Dhabi continues to deny the allegations.

Sudan's war began more than two years ago 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, spiraled into open conflict.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the war and at least 13 million have been 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.

Sudan sits just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia, but the UAE has been much more active on the ground.

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.

An information war was already underway between the UAE and Saudi-backed social media accounts. Accounts linked to the UAE are looking to discredit journalists and organizations that report on RSF atrocities, while Saudi-linked accounts are boosting the same content.

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.

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 Saudi-backed administration.

After failing to unseat the Yemen's Ansarullah movement, whose attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea boosted their popularity in the region, Riyadh has sought a compromise with the resistance group.

Still, Persian Gulf monarchs are usually reluctant to air disagreements with each other at the White House.

Observers maintain the crown prince's decision to engage Trump directly on Sudan is recognition of how a wedge was emerging between two Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf region over a range of issues.

Source: Press TV

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