{"id":52587,"date":"2025-08-08T23:28:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=52587"},"modified":"2025-08-08T23:28:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:28:38","slug":"feeble-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/08\/feeble-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeble Standards..!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al-Tahir Satti<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is only natural that Prime Minister Kamal Idris should begin his foreign visits with a trip to Egypt\u2014not merely because of the historical ties, shared destiny, and other well-established facts, but because of Cairo\u2019s steadfast support for our people\u2019s cause. Egypt deserves to be the first destination for any Sudanese official, not just the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Before the war, while some countries were sowing discord among political forces in Khartoum, Egypt was working to shield our nation from the flames of sedition\u2014war.<\/p>\n

You may recall that in February 2023, just two months before the outbreak of war\u2014while Volker and his \u201cQuartet\u201d were fanning the embers of conflict\u2014Egypt, seeking to avert the coming conflagration, invited all political forces (except the National Congress Party) to an inclusive Sudanese dialogue. I was invited to cover it and witnessed the genuine turnout of national figures and political forces answering Egypt\u2019s call\u2014except for the \u201cactivists\u201d of the time and the revolution\u2019s opportunists, who rejected it outright.<\/p>\n

It was a serious initiative. With the country on the brink of war, many rallied to defuse the tensions of the Framework Agreement. But the activists\u2014now clients of Abu Dhabi\u2014rejected it. At the time, they were allied with Hemedti in the infamous Framework Agreement, which even the late signatory later admitted had caused the war. Egypt\u2019s position was clear: protect our people and our country from the perils of that divisive accord.<\/p>\n

Those were Egypt\u2019s stances before the war. After it broke out, Cairo continued its efforts to end it through the \u201cNeighbouring Countries Initiative,\u201d which the militia rejected before even hearing its content. Egypt then opened its border crossings to shelter those fleeing the Janjaweed\u2019s crimes, and it stood firmly in regional and international forums in defense of Sudan\u2019s unity, institutional legitimacy, and other national principles. It is therefore perfectly logical for the Prime Minister to choose Egypt for his first foreign visit.<\/p>\n

However, the Sudanese delegation\u2014both in form and substance\u2014fell far short of expectations. The Prime Minister was accompanied only by: Khalid Al-Ayser, Minister of Culture, Information and Tourism; Omar Siddiq, Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Badr Al-Din Al-Jaafari and Nizar Abdullah from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office. That\u2019s all. One full minister, a minister of state, and a couple of aides\u2014a so-called \u201chigh-level\u201d delegation in diplomatic protocol, but in reality a paltry, underwhelming one.<\/p>\n

The two sides discussed important issues: reconstruction, Red Sea security, Nile water, railway link projects, electrical grid interconnection, cooperation in rehabilitating Sudan\u2019s health sector, and collaboration in higher education. All these matters were clearly on the agenda, yet the Prime Minister\u2014or whoever advises him\u2014failed to assemble a delegation worthy of the two countries and the weight of these issues.<\/p>\n

Imagine: the talks covered economic, service, and security matters, as well as reconstruction\u2014yet there was not a single minister from the economic sector, despite their abundance in the cabinet; not a single service-sector minister, despite their numbers; and no official connected to the Red Sea or Nile water portfolios, though they are many. Their absence was not an act of rebellion\u2014it was simply that the Prime Minister does not grasp the value of having them in such a delegation.<\/p>\n

And perhaps you saw it: when President Sisi met the two delegations, the Egyptian Prime Minister was flanked by senior members of his government, led by the Foreign Minister, lined up beside him in a way that reflected the stature of the Egyptian state. By contrast, Sudan\u2019s Prime Minister was accompanied by a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and a Minister of Culture, Information, and Tourism, with the rest of the seats filled by Sudan\u2019s ambassador to Cairo and aides from Kamal Idris\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Minister of State Omar Siddiq did not meet formally with Egypt\u2019s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdel Aaty, because his rank is equivalent only to an undersecretary or assistant foreign minister in Egypt. As for Khalid Al-Ayser, the Minister of Information\u2014incidentally, Egypt has no Ministry of Information, and its top media authority is the National Media Authority, chaired by Ahmed Al-Moslemani\u2014he has been largely silent since being stripped of the role of government spokesperson. No replacement was appointed, not for lack of capable candidates, but perhaps because the Prime Minister wants a mute government. It seems their lethargy is not enough; they must be voiceless too.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Information Minister did not address the Arab media, despite being perfectly able to arrange a major press conference for the Prime Minister. The situation is disheartening: the leader of a nation whose people and army are engaged in a desperate battle for survival visits Cairo\u2014the beating heart of the Arab media\u2014and yet makes no effort to speak to Arab journalists about the war, its consequences, and its crimes. He met only with Sudanese journalists already residing with him in hotels and flats in Port Sudan. Even Egypt\u2019s media, sympathetic to Sudan\u2019s cause, was bypassed by Kamal Idris\u2019s protocol.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Serbian Prime Minister Goran Matkovi\u0107 visited Cairo accompanied by a large contingent of ministers and experts\u2014a delegation not as meagre as that of a patient\u2019s entourage or a casual tourist group of old friends, as in Kamal Idris\u2019s case. On the sidelines of his official visit, Matkovi\u0107 went to Cairo University and delivered a historic lecture that made headlines.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Sudan\u2019s Prime Minister, on the sidelines of his visit, went to \u201cHadith Al-Madina Caf\u00e9\u201d\u2014perhaps to check the quality of the coffee and shisha served to Sudanese expatriates in Cairo. And why not? For the scope of one\u2019s actions is always limited by the scope of one\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al-Tahir Satti It is only natural that Prime Minister Kamal Idris should begin his foreign visits with a trip to Egypt\u2014not merely because of the historical ties, shared destiny, and other well-established facts, but because of Cairo\u2019s steadfast support for our people\u2019s cause. Egypt deserves to be the first destination for any Sudanese official, not …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52587","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\/52587","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=52587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52588,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52587\/revisions\/52588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}