Eli Lake, Columnist

Can an Arab Ally of the U.S. Reverse the Coup in Sudan?

The White House is hoping that the United Arab Emirates can help broker a deal to restore Sudan’s ousted prime minister.

October 28, 2021 at 11:30 PM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok needs to be brought back into power.
Photographer: EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP

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On the surface it appears that U.S. President Joe Biden’s strategy to reverse Monday’s military coup in Sudan has been to pressure and isolate the new regime until it allows Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to return to power. The U.S. suspended $700 million in aid to Sudan this week. On Thursday, Biden released a statement touting a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned the military takeover.

Beneath the surface, however, the White House is working with the United Arab Emirates to broker a deal. U.S. and Arab diplomats have told me that Brett McGurk, the coordinator for Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council, has worked closely with Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Emirati national security advisor, to negotiate Hamdok’s return to power with the Sudanese Army general now in charge of the country, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.