The Relations between Sudan and Iran are Jeopardizing the Strategic Interests of the Sudanese People
General Bashir must Resign
Immediately after the destruction of the Yermok Military Industrial Complex in Khartoum, which represents a violation of Sudan’s sovereignty and is the second such occurrence since Sudan’s independence in 1956 and under the same rule of General Bashir, we stated clearly that General Bashir and his group should be held responsible, and by all standards, General Bashir should resign with his group and return power to the people as the only solution of what they are continuing to do against the national interests of the Sudanese people. They committed genocide and they forced the South to secede, which are symptoms of the biggest failures of the regime. The arms which they are producing in the Yermok factory are not being used to protect the national interests of Sudan; instead they are only being used against the Sudanese people – all over Sudan. The regime and its rulers that cannot defend their own country, they have no right to rule that country particularly when it is not a democratic rule.
The continuous relations and alliance between Sudan and Iran are jeopardizing the strategic interests of Sudan, and it is endangering the national security of the country as well. It is at the expense of our historical and strategic relations with our neighborhood in particular Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States who are more important to Sudan than Iran. We need to expose this unhealthy alliance with Iran and stand against it.
It is not the first time for the military junta in Khartoum to commit strategic mistakes in the relations with the neighborhood and the international community. It is General Bashir who brought Mustafa Humza of the Egyptian Jumma Islamia on his own airplane from Addis Ababa after the failed attempt to assassinate former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and it is the same regime which was raising slogans against the United States and that they are going to Islamize the Pope of the Vatican and they ended up dividing the country, forcing more than 6 million Sudanese as displaced refugees and in exile. The visit of the Iranian warship to Port Sudan exposed the relations and the alliances of the regime with Iran, and it is endangering the interests and the very existence of Sudan and involving Sudan into issues that are only going to harm Sudan’s national interests. More than anything, Sudan needs peace with itself, reconciliation, democracy and to build a new future. We have inherited the past, but we can always build a new future.
Yasir Arman
Secretary General, SPLM-North
November 2, 2012