{"id":52153,"date":"2025-07-30T18:08:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=52153"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:08:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:08:52","slug":"the-quartet-is-now-a-thing-of-the-past-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/30\/the-quartet-is-now-a-thing-of-the-past-but-why\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quartet Is Now a Thing of the Past\u2026 But Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I See<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adil El-Baz<\/strong><\/p>\n

1
\nYesterday, as we chased any scrap of information about the convening of the Quartet meetings in Washington\u2014following media hype and political speculation\u2014and while the opposition rushed to raise expectations about what these meetings could achieve, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper (note: Asharq Al-Awsat, and not any other outlet) published a breaking news update last night, stating: “Reliable sources at the U.S. State Department confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Quartet meeting on Sudan\u2014scheduled to be hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates tomorrow, Wednesday\u2014has been canceled, without specifying the reasons or setting a new date for the meeting.”<\/p>\n

It is no coincidence that Asharq Al-Awsat\u2014and not another publication\u2014was chosen to publish this news. It is a message from Riyadh itself: the Quartet cannot be driven by unilateral decisions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Egypt\u2019s Ambassador to Washington, Moataz Zahran, hinted that the meeting may be postponed to next September, affirming to Asharq Al-Awsat the Quartet\u2019s commitment to maintaining international pressure in pursuit of a settlement to Sudan\u2019s crisis.<\/p>\n

2
\nSo the Quartet was abruptly derailed. But why?<\/p>\n

Certainly, the reasons are not due to the absence of the warring parties, nor the lack of civilian representation, nor even due to failure or disagreements about expanding the Quartet\u2014something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed. Nor is it because America suddenly realized the risks of imposing a settlement on the Sudanese people\u2014it has no real interests or major stakes in Sudan to protect.<\/p>\n

So why the postponement\u2014according to the Egyptian minister\u2014or outright cancellation, as per the U.S. State Department source quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat (read: Saudi Arabia)?<\/p>\n

Several reasons lie behind the delay\/cancellation. Chief among them: the Emirati position.<\/p>\n

Although the UAE was invited under Saudi pressure, in an attempt to bind it to the meeting\u2019s outcomes, it adopted two baffling positions that diverged completely from the stances of the other three parties (the U.S., Egypt, and Saudi Arabia).<\/p>\n

The UAE insisted that the final communiqu\u00e9 must include language about excluding both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Army from the transitional period, and that Sudan should be led by civilians\u2014without specifying who these civilians are. This is exactly the stance expressed by Anwar Gargash in a tweet yesterday.<\/p>\n

This position, which aims to sideline both military factions, stems from the UAE\u2019s desire to oust Hemedti and replace him with Abdul Rahim. It also clearly seeks to reposition its proxies\u2014Sommoud and Ta’sees\u2014in Sudan\u2019s political scene. In short, Abu Dhabi is trying to kill four birds with one stone: eliminate Hemedti, exclude the army, empower its clients Abdul Rahim, Sommoud, and Ta’sees, and secure influence in Sudan\u2019s future governance.<\/p>\n

The second strange position was the UAE\u2019s attempt to insert references to the so-called Ta’sees coalition in the final statement, presenting the (Nyala-based) government as a parallel authority to the one in Port Sudan\u2014even if it only exists online. (Now do you understand why the Ta’sees \u201cgovernment\u201d was declared just 72 hours before the now-canceled Quartet meeting?)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s astonishing is that Abu Dhabi knows full well the other three countries\u2019 positions on any parallel government. Just a day earlier, Al-Watan newspaper ran a prominent column by Suleiman Al-Aqili titled: \u201cA Parallel Government\u2026 A Pathetic Partition Plan!\u201d<\/p>\n

In it, he wrote: “The Ta’sees coalition is merely a theatrical move\u2014more of a political gamble destined to fail at the first real test on the ground, because Sudan\u2019s unity is far greater than the ambitions of militias and the delusions of swift power.”<\/p>\n

Moreover, on Tuesday, July 29\u2014the very day the Quartet was supposed to convene\u2014Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement categorically rejecting any recognition of the so-called Ta’sees government declared by the RSF. The statement described it as a direct threat to Sudan\u2019s legitimacy and unity amidst a war that has raged for over a year. It added that establishing a parallel government outside internationally recognized legitimacy would only further complicate the crisis and undermine regional and international efforts toward a comprehensive political solution.<\/p>\n

3
\nEgypt took a similar stance. In a statement issued on March 2, 2025, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Egypt rejects any attempts to form a parallel government that would threaten Sudan\u2019s unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. The statement warned that such actions would \u201ccomplicate the scene,\u201d \u201chinder efforts to unify Sudanese political forces,\u201d and \u201cworsen the humanitarian situation\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n

4
\nAs for the U.S. position on the UAE\u2019s attempts to create a parallel government in Sudan, it had already been made clear back during the Nairobi declaration. On March 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of State\u2014via the Bureau of African Affairs and the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum\u2014issued a statement saying: “The United States is deeply concerned by reports that the RSF and its allied groups have signed a so-called \u2018Transitional Constitution\u2019 for Sudan. Efforts to create a parallel government do not contribute to peace and security in the country, expose Sudan to further instability, and risk an effective partition of the nation.”<\/p>\n

Despite these clear positions from three out of four Quartet members, the UAE remained insistent that the statement include a reference to the illegitimate Ta’sees \u201cgovernment\u201d\u2014barely three days old.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even more baffling is that Abu Dhabi continues to cling to this illegitimate entity, which has been rejected by the entire international community. Just yesterday, the African Union\u2019s Peace and Security Council strongly condemned the July 26, 2025 declaration by the so-called Ta’sees coalition led by the RSF, rejecting its establishment of a parallel government in Sudan.<\/p>\n

5
\nNow, the U.S. has failed to unify even its own allies. The Quartet collapsed in Washington just as the Jeddah, Addis, London, and Geneva tracks did. The illusions of Ta’sees crumbled. The dreams of Sommoud did not last. The bitter truth came quickly.<\/p>\n

The mantra \u201cthe solution is in the field\u201d still dominates the scene.<\/p>\n

And as I finish writing this article, one question keeps lingering in my mind:
\nWhy is Abu Dhabi doing this? What\u2019s in it for them?<\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I See Adil El-Baz 1 Yesterday, as we chased any scrap of information about the convening of the Quartet meetings in Washington\u2014following media hype and political speculation\u2014and while the opposition rushed to raise expectations about what these meetings could achieve, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper (note: Asharq Al-Awsat, and not any other outlet) published a breaking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52154,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52153\/revisions\/52154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}