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US role in the conflict

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October 24th Update: The US announced additional sanctions, this time on the Director General of Defense Industries System, Mirghani Idris Suleiman, for his role in helping the SAF to acquire weapons. They note that "the SAF has prioritized weapons acquisition, including Iranian drones and a port-for-weapons deal with Russia, choosing to expand the conflict rather than end it through good-faith negotiations."

October 12th post The US just announced additional sanctions related to Sudan, this time on Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, who controls a UAE-based company that "imported vehicles to Sudan on behalf of the paramilitary RSF and retrofitted them with machine guns, the U.S. Department of Treasury said Tuesday" (Washington Post

This extends previous US sanctions going back to the beginning of the current round of conflict (see some highlights below.) The US has also been pushing for a ceasefire and talks, but it is far from clear that the US is putting its full weight behind the push for peace. Earlier, a Washington Post editorial summed up the position of the US as: "[...] to decry the human cost of Sudan’s war in general terms, while pursuing closer ties to the UAE, without demanding a clear public commitment that the UAE stop supporting a faction responsible for some of the conflict’s worst atrocities." They note the UAE is one of only two countries (along with India), to be designated a "major defense partner", which makes possible closer military cooperation such as through joint training. Thus, the US may be hesitant to be too critical of the role of it's close ally the UAE, even as the latter has been

For more about what the US has been trying to accomplish and the US perspective, see the interview with US Special Envoy Tom Perriello by PBS NewsHour (our transcript here)

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