Sudan would consider any initiative from Russia with “good intentions” to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict in Khartoum, Malik Agar, the deputy chairman of the African country’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, has said.
“So far there’s no specific Russian initiative but there are good intentions to contribute to the settlement of the military conflict in Sudan,” Agar said in an interview with RT.
According to him, Sudan enjoys favorable relations with Russia, and Moscow’s intentions towards the country are devoid of self-interest.
The sovereign council was established in 2019 through a power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians. Its main objective was to facilitate the country’s transition to democracy following a coup that resulted in the ousting of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.
The Sudanese official led a delegation from the war-torn country to Moscow, where they met senior members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last Thursday.
He told RT that his team’s visit to Russia comes amid the current state of affairs in Sudan, where tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary escalated into civil war in mid-April.
“Wars in Sudan are not something new, but we need to be able to manage them and know how to get out of them for the benefit of the country,” he stated, while acknowledging ongoing efforts by Saudi Arabia and the US, as well as those from the African region.
The Sudanese politician, however, made it clear that the junta would not tolerate initiatives – “whether UN or otherwise” – that involve sending military forces into Khartoum.
He emphasized that any such moves to turn the troubled nation “into a demilitarized zone would be regarded by us as an occupation attempt, and such moves show a lack of respect for the sovereignty of the state of Sudan.”
Intense fighting in Sudan’s capital and western regions has been taking place for twelve weeks now, with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting that the crisis has killed at least 1,081 people.
Last week, Lavrov told Agar that Russia was concerned about the situation in Sudan and had conveyed the Kremlin’s readiness to play a role in resolving the crisis.