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Sudan - Iran Relations

Sudan has had close relations with Iran since 1989, when a military coup brought el-Bashir to power. At the time, Iran was emerging from an eight-year war with neighboring Iraq and was looking for allies in the Sunni Muslim-Arab world. Many analysts believe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps played a major role in helping el-Bashir consolidate power by training and giving logistical support to the new Sudanese army.

By 2007 Egypt's influence on Sudan's leadership and its ability to persuade the government to engage in constructive dialogue with the international community had waned. Sudan accepted its growing isolation from the West, most Arab governments, and its African neighbors and has turned instead to Iran and Qatar: Iran for its military and political support, Qatar for its financial assistance. Sudan's turn to Iran and lack of interest in substantive negotiation with the international community was based on Khartoum's calculation that engagement with the West would no longer yield benefits to its national interest.

The Sunni Arab-dominated Sudanese government and Iran's Shi'ite government have maintained close ties because they are focused on a shared anti-U.S./anti-Israel agenda, not on their sectarian differences. Sudan is part of a wider pro-Iranian regional alliance, which includes Syria, Qatar, and militant Islamic groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.

Sunni-majority Sudan has been trying to improve military capabilities with the help of predominantly-Shi'ite Iran since the 1989 coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power. A prominent Sudanese Islamist who supported the coup, Hasan al-Turabi, later approached Iran's Islamist rulers to form a Sunni-Shi'ite alliance between the two states.Sudan and Iran have been allies for decades and boosted military ties under a 2008 agreement. Former U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios says Sudan is the only country that has formed what he calls "an enduring alliance with Iran based on a shared Islamist ideology."

Sudan wants Iranian arms because it is dealing with insurgencies on several fronts. Arms embargoes on Sudan implemented by Western powers also have forced Sudanese authorities to seek alternative sources of weapons. The United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo on warring parties in parts of Sudan in 2004. But, it permitted countries to supply weapons to Sudan provided they receive guarantees the arms will not be used to commit atrocities.

In 2009 the asked Sudan to stop Badr Airlines flights from Tehran, Iran to Khartoum, Sudan which we believed are carrying lethal military equipment. Earlier Washington advised Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Yemen that additional flights may be planned, which could also be used to transfer arms from Iran to Sudan.

Iran has delivered arms to Sudan using cargo flights of various airlines (not necessarily of Iranian companies), most likely in order to transfer them to Hamas. UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1747, para. 5 states that Iran shall not supply, sell or transfer directly or indirectly any arms or related materiel, whether or not originating in Iran. Any supply or transfer outside Iran of arms and related materiel violates Iran's obligations under UNSCR 1747.

There is information that is regularly required for overflight requests. The regularly required info is: Flight purpose, aircraft operator, type, registration, nationality, type and amount of cargo, origin, destination, date/time, entry/departure points. Additionally, all overflights require fees to be paid. Countries can deny overflight permissions because overflight- or other flight-related fees by the parties involved with operating the flights are in arrears.

Reports that Israel may have carried out an air attack on an Iranian weapons convoy in the Sudanese desert drewn attention to an alleged Iranian arms smuggling network in Africa. Sudan is believed to be playing a key role in Iranian efforts to deliver weapons to militant Hamas fighters in Gaza. Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny reports that their fighter bombers, backed by unmanned drones, carried out the attack in Sudan in January 2009 as Israeli forces and Hamas engaged in pitch battles in Gaza. US news reports, quoting unnamed U.S. and Israeli sources, say the air strikes targeted a convoy of arms-laden trucks traveling in the eastern part of Sudan near the Egyptian border.

The Sudanese government blamed Israel for what it said was the 24 October 2012 bombing of an arms factory in the capital. Sudan Information Minister Ahmed Balal Osman says he believes Israeli warplanes caused explosions and a huge fire at the Yarmouk manufacturing complex in Khartoum. Sudan said four Israeli warplanes bombed a weapons factory in Khartoum. Two people were reportedly killed in a fire that broke out at the plant. The Satellite Sentinel Project, a U.S.-based monitoring group, says images of Yarmouk taken before and after the pre-dawn incident suggest the complex housed "highly volatile cargo" that exploded when struck by air-delivered munitions. Sudanese authorities say four people were killed and blamed the destruction on Israeli warplanes. Since the incident, Israeli defense commentators have claimed that the volatile cargo at Yarmouk included missiles made under Iranian supervision for smuggling through Sudanese and Egyptian territory to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Two Iranian warships arrived in Sudan on 30 October 2012 “carrying the message of support and friendship,” days after Sudan accused Israel of an air strike on an arms factory in Khartoum. The vessels docked in Port of Sudan on the Red Sea and were expected to stay there for several days. “The visit of these ships to Port Sudan and their presence in regional waters exemplifies serious support of political and diplomatic ties between the two countries,” Sudanese army spokesman Savarmi Khaled Saad said. The official made no connection between the visit of the Iranian task force and the alleged Israeli air raid on the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum last week, which killed at least two people. Unconfirmed media reports suggested that the plant produced weapons for Iran, Syria, and radical Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the claim that the Sudanese authorities dismissed categorically. Israel also suspects Sudan of smuggling weapons to Gaza Strip, which has been under control of Hamas since 2007, through Egypt. The Sudanese authorities have accused Israel of at least three air strikes on Sudan in the past three years. Tel Aviv has never commented on any of the allegations by Khartoum.

Weapons sighted during military parades clearly are Iranian-produced weapons. The quantities involved and also the time involved are very difficult to find information about. But it seems over the past decade, Iran has supplied a constant supply of weapons to Sudan.