Blinken Agrees to a Bilateral Meeting with the SAF 

The newspaper “Asharq Al-Awsat” reported, quoting closely related sources, that the President of the Sovereignty Council, Commander of the Sudanese Army SAF ,Lt. Gen.Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, requested during the call that took place with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last Monday, a bilateral meeting between the two sides before the Switzerland negotiations on December 15.

The same sources affirmed that Blinken expressed his approval of the Sudanese request, and saw that the meeting should be held in Switzerland, but Al-Burhan suggested holding it in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which hosted the previous negotiations between the SAF and the Rapid Support RSF Militia, which resulted in the “Declaration of Principles” agreement.

The same Sudanese sources expected that the Sudanese delegation would consist of senior military leaders in the SAF and representatives of the Foreign Ministry, and in return the US administration could send a senior official in the State Department, Special Envoy Tom Perriello, and the US Chargé d’Affaires to Sudan Lucy Tamlin.

Regarding the agenda that could be presented in the bilateral meeting, the sources expected that “the Sudanese government will ask the American side to exert more pressure on the countries that are alleged to support the Rapid Support Forces RSF.

The Sudanese demands may also include pressuring the Rapid Support Forces RSF to force them to cease fire and military operations to prevent their expansion into new territories.

Another agenda that will be strongly present during the Sudanese-American meeting is “the future of the Rapid Support Forces RSF in the political scene.”

The sources said that “after Blinken’s public approval to hold this meeting, there may be some change in the timing of the Switzerland talks scheduled for the middle of this month, particularly if they coincide with the holding of the bilateral meeting in Jeddah.”