Biden’s Administration: A State of Hopeless Failure

On Wednesday morning (September 18), Sudanese in the East awoke to the news of a statement issued by President Biden himself regarding the situation in their country. Some were initially hopeful upon reading the headline, believing that the systematic destruction of their nation, which had been ongoing for 17 months, was not a priority for the White House. This belief was reinforced when the recent presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made no mention of Sudan. Thus, when they saw the headline, recognizing that the president of the most powerful country in the world was acknowledging them, they were briefly elated—only to realize that it was false hope.

In his statement, President Biden described the war in Sudan as a “senseless war,” a description that has often been echoed by senior officials in his administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. To be fair, this description was also used by General Burhan in the first week of the war. We cannot blame anyone for using it, even if it oversimplifies the true nature of the war or if the intended meanings differ.

The term “senseless” is not the only notable aspect of Biden’s statement, which seems to be nothing more than a formality on his part. More striking is the fact that the statement contains fundamental errors, some related to the nature of the war and others to the U.S. stance on it. Throughout the statement, President Biden equates the national army, responsible for protecting the nation and its people, with the “rebel forces”—whether one chooses to call them that, or label them a terrorist militia or an army of mercenaries. This is indeed a peculiar comparison!

President Biden also blamed “both parties” for the suffering of the Sudanese people, accusing them of committing “war crimes,” while singling out the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for additional charges of “crimes against humanity.” While his latter accusation comes close to the truth, his broader comparison unjustly targets the Sudanese army, whose constitutional duty is to pursue the rebels through direct combat and airstrikes wherever they are, as long as the rebels remain in civilian homes and other civilian areas, and as long as they have reneged on the agreements they signed in Jeddah over a year ago, in the presence of the Americans themselves. If President Biden believes that what the Sudanese army is doing constitutes “war crimes,” he should have the courage to declare what Israel is doing in Gaza and other occupied territories, as well as in Lebanon, and to acknowledge what the U.S. army did in Afghanistan and Iraq!

In reality, President Biden’s statement is a reflection of the U.S.’s flawed approach to understanding the nature of the war in Sudan. It is also an intentional oversight of those who are fueling the conflict by providing the militia with money, arms, and military equipment. It is curious that President Biden made no mention, either implicitly or explicitly, of these backers, despite the fact that U.S. and U.N. Security Council reports (regarding Resolution 1591 on Darfur) are full of information naming those who are stoking the flames of war in Sudan!

We do not need to delve into reports and dossiers. The U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, acknowledged this in private meetings with Sudanese politicians in various capitals, admitting that the U.S. has multiple interests with the UAE and prefers not to publicly hold it accountable for prolonging the war and exacerbating the suffering of the Sudanese people. This explains why President Biden, who spent much of his statement talking about the suffering of the Sudanese, deliberately avoided mentioning the true culprits behind that suffering and the prolongation of the war.

In practice, the U.S. administration deliberately refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Sudanese government, treating it merely as a de facto authority. What happened in the U.N. Security Council two weeks ago, when the U.S. proposed the first draft of the “technical extension” of sanctions on Darfur, replacing the term “Sudanese government” with “the authority in Sudan,” and what followed in Jeddah and Geneva with the insistence that they wanted a negotiating delegation from the army, not the government, are just some examples of this, as confirmed by President Biden’s statement on Wednesday.

Despite the double standards evident in the U.S. president’s statement, the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, responded with greater wisdom and rationality. His response—issued less than 24 hours later—was full of reason, as he agreed with Biden’s description of the Sudanese people’s suffering but shifted the responsibility to the true culprits: the RSF rebels and the regional powers supporting them, who no longer hide their involvement. Moreover, al-Burhan’s statement challenged the U.S. to prove its seriousness in ending the war, expressing his hope to meet with American officials—without naming anyone—on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and the upcoming high-level summit in New York.

Meanwhile, the White House officially announced that President Biden would host Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, President of the UAE, next Monday. Reuters reported that the wars in Sudan and Gaza would be among the topics discussed. However, I personally am not optimistic about any breakthrough in the Sudanese crisis regarding the cessation of the war, even though everyone knows that the “two parties” meeting in the White House are the ones who can signal that enough destruction and devastation have been inflicted on Sudan, and enough killing and displacement of its people. The current U.S. administration is too weak to tell the wrongdoer that they have erred, and the situation in Sudan is just one example of this.