Egyptian startegy towards the Sudan
Egypt-Sudan, Analysis, 12/20/1997

Harsh international sanctions were imposed on Iraq as part of a relentless American-Israeli campaign which has destroyed that country's infrastructure. Sudan and Libya are bearing the brunt of similar economic and political sanctions which have harmed capabilities and devastated their capacity to protect their strategic interests. This damage has contributed to Sudan and Libya's support for Arab national security strategy.

This US-Israel strategy prompted Egypt to put the unstable situation in both Iraq and Sudan on the top of its diplomatic agenda after a long history of criticism between the three governments.

Relations between Cairo and the Islamist government in Khartoum have been difficult for some time now.

When Oamr Al-Bashir seized power in 1989, his regime maintained decent relations with Cairo at first, although they lacked warmth. In fact, this phase did not last for long, and Khartoum began to make trouble for Cairo by deciding to give refuge to Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader of the militant Al-Gama'a Al-Islamya.

The situation escalated further when Sudan revived a border dispute over the Halayeb triangle, which is acknowledged to be Egyptian territory, but has been left under Sudanese administration by mutual consent.

Then, to cap it all off, the Khartoum government chose to provide refuge to three militants who were involved in an abortive attempt on the life of president Mubarak in 1995 in Addis Ababa.

Since then, Cairo has made improvements in relations conditional on Sudan moving to extradite the three men so they can face trial in Addis Ababa.

The Sudanese government faces strong difficulties in its civil war with the main opposition movement in south Sudan. The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) led by John Garang, who wants to see a total reorganization of the Sudanese political system.

Some analysts said that the Egyptian government believes that when the situation of the East whether in the Gulf or in Israel and the Palestinian territories, is tense, Cairo needs to take very good care of what is happening to its south.

According to this Egyptian strategy, Cairo has been working to improve bilateral relations with the Sudanese government.

After many months without high-level official contact between Cairo and Khartoum, Sudan's first vice-president Al-Zobeir Mohamed Saleh paid a brief visit to Cairo last month where he met president Mubarak.

Statements made after the meeting were couched in very general terms, but reflected a common wish to surmount differences between the two countries.

Running parallel to this, Cairo had invited Sudanese rebel leader John Garang for an unprecedented visit. Garang came and advocated establishing a confederation between the mostly Christian south Sudan and the predominantly Muslim north.

In fact, the fighting that has been going on in Sudan since 1983 is essentially about the distribution of the Sudanese national resources, and so Egypt paid its official invitation to Garang as a part of its strategy to pursue its rapprochement with Khartoum.

Previous Stories:
  Sudanese foreign minister calls for a strong Egyptian role in Sudan   (12/18/1997)
  Moussa supports Islamic Summit resolutions   (12/16/1997)
  Egypt urges Iraq to abide by UN resolutions   (11/29/1997)

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