Nearly seven months after President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged to cooperate and coordinate to end Sudan’s civil war, the conflict continues to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis as regional powers expand their intervention and fuel the weapons trade. Saudi Arabia has made no progress toward a ceasefire. Saudi Arabia’s client, Sudanese Armed Forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, continues to receive weapons and other support from Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.
Saudi Arabia has hosted Burhan several times since November 2025 and, contrary to the agreement in Washington, the Kingdom appears to bet on Burhan’s victory rather than a peace process with his chief rival, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo Musa, known by the nom de guerre Hemedti, and his Rapid Support Forces.
Escalation by Burhan’s forces would not be possible without the consistent flow of weapons and drones provided by Iran and Turkey.
Burhan continues to defy overtures from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, who together form the “Quad” and the newly formed Quintet, which includes the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and the United Nations. Media reports suggest Burhan has repeatedly rejected the quartet’s ceasefire roadmap, even after his most recent meeting with Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah in April 2026.
Burhan’s government in Port Sudan has paralyzed efforts toward a humanitarian ceasefire, while escalating violence across multiple frontlines. This month, the Sudanese Armed Forces reportedly targeted Rapid Support Forces at the international airport in Nyala, south of al-Fashir, with drone strikes, while pushing across Al-Kaily in the Blue Nile region along the South Sudan and Ethiopia borders after battles with Rapid Support Forces and local allies. Clashes along the Blue Nile region allegedly have displaced more than 30,000 civilians. Escalation by Burhan’s forces would not be possible without the consistent flow of weapons and drones provided by Iran and Turkey.
The April 18, 2026, arrest of Shamim Mafi, an Iranian national in Los Angeles, served to highlight the network funding and arming of Burhan’s forces and allies. Her arrest exposed links among Iranian proxies in the United States, Iranian intelligence services, companies in Oman, and Turkish financial institutions.
Mafi’s Oman-based company, Atlas International Business LLC, was involved in shipments of Iranian Mohajer-6 drones to Port Sudan, while evidence exists of delivery and deployment of Iranian Mohajer-4 and Ababil class drones like Ababil-2 (Ababil-T), along with high-frequency “Fajr-1” radar systems. Adding to Sudanese Forces’ arsenal has been the deployment of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones against Rapid Support Forces targets.
Saudi Arabia is not alone in supporting Burhan at the expense of peace. Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank has facilitated the finance of weapons from Iran to Sudan. Ankara, just like Tehran, has utilized relations with Burhan and his Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist allies to expand presence along the Red Sea through investment projects such as the port on Suakin Island. This footprint has raised concern in both Cairo and Riyadh.
As peace in Sudan grows far more elusive, Trump and bin Salman must re-engage warring parties and warn spoilers of consequences.
The role played by Cairo in Sudan’s conflict is as complex. According to recent reports, Egypt’s involvement “has increasingly unfolded through reported air operations, battlefield coordination … by moving from indirect support to more direct military involvement through weapons, drones, [and] intelligence” sharing. This places Egypt in a precarious position as a member of the Quad violating international sanctions.
Egypt has labeled the Rapid Support Forces as hostile to its interests, raising concerns over territorial disputes along the triangle region’s “corridors linking Sudan to Libya and Chad.” These concerns contradict reality as evidence highlights the flow of Iranian weapons into Gaza from Sudan to Sinai. Gains by the Rapid Support Forces this year have shifted Egypt’s approach to deeper engagement, with the Egypt military reportedly setting up an air base along the border to manage deployment of drones in support of Burhan’s forces. Earlier this year, Reuters published satellite imagery showing a “Turkish drone at [an] airstrip near Egypt’s border with Sudan.” Cairo’s use of advanced Turkish drones for surveillance along the 750-mile border with Sudan is just part of widespread drone deployments that have targeted Rapid Support Forces convoys.
As peace in Sudan grows far more elusive, Trump and bin Salman must re-engage warring parties and warn spoilers of consequences. The war on Iran has temporarily diminished the flow of weapons to Port Sudan by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but Egypt and Turkey seem capable of filling that vacuum.
