Saudi influence in spotlight as US calls on Riyadh to end Sudan violence

Washington takes unusual step of calling on kingdom to bring about end to military crackdown

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Wed 5 Jun 2019 16.03 BST Last modified on Thu 6 Jun 2019 00.55 BST

The thorny question of Saudi Arabian political influence across the Middle East and Africa is back in the spotlight again with Washington taking the unusual step of effectively telling Riyadh to end Sudan’s military crackdown.

In an unusual public statement the US state department revealed that its undersecretary for political affairs, the diplomat David Hale, had phoned the Saudi deputy defence minister, Khaled bin Salman, to ask him to use the country’s influence to end the brutal repression against peaceful protesters by the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) in Sudan.

It has hardly been a secret that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have gained influence in Sudan following the overthrow of the dictator Omar al-Bashir in April. Critics of Saudi Arabia will see a pattern of behaviour, evident in Libya and Yemen, in which Saudi Arabia moves to marginalise rivals Iran and Qatar, as well as to install autocratic regimes built on repression.

But it is rare for the Americans, normally so close to Saudi Arabia on regional issues, to make so public their representations to Riyadh on the need for civilian rule and for democracy to run its course.

Saudi Arabia may claim the Sudanese crackdown was an independent judgment by the interim leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, but the army general has in recent weeks paid visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

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