Sudan, Iran fully restore ties with ambassador swap

Sudan’s army-led government said it exchanged ambassadors with Iran, fully restoring diplomatic ties as the military bolsters its overseas alliances while fighting a brutal civil war.

Abdulaziz Hassan Saleh was appointed the North African nation’s first ambassador to the Islamic Republic since embassies were shuttered in 2016, Sudan’s army-backed government said Sunday in a statement. An Iranian diplomat has arrived in Sudan to assume the equivalent role, it added.

The move comes as Sudan’s military struggles to gain advantage in a more than yearlong conflict against the rival Rapid Support Forces militia in which some 150,000 people may have been killed, according to US estimates.

Iran has this year provided armed drones to Sudan’s military led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, initially helping it seize back some territory from the RSF, Bloomberg News reported. Tehran and Sudan’s army in 2023 began talks to re-establish ties.