The RSF is ready for unconditional participation. Why is the Sudanese Sovereign Council required to return to the Jeddah negotiating platform?

Retired Major General Dr. Amin Ismail Majzoub, an expert in crisis management and negotiation, said that the Sudanese Sovereignty Council's talk about the need of the "Jeddah Platform" for mechanisms and procedures stems from the experiences of previous truces that the Rapid Support Forces did not adhere to, and committed abuses for which they have not yet been held accountable.

Majzoub stressed that the Sudanese armed forces do not put obstacles or obstacles to the return to the negotiation process sought by Riyadh and Washington through the "Jeddah platform", but "experimenting with the experimenter will lead to regret," as he put it, stressing the need to establish these mechanisms so as not to repeat the results emanating from the previous truces.

This came during the episode devoted by the "Beyond the News" program on (2023/7/25) to the statements of leaders of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council that the Jeddah negotiating platform is marred by deficiencies related to mechanisms and procedural issues that cannot stop the war without resolving it, and their assertion that there is no truce with the Rapid Support Forces until after what it described as cleaning and securing Khartoum and other cities.

On the other hand, the political adviser to the Rapid Support Forces Youssef Ezzat stressed its readiness to participate in any kind of meetings that lead to peace, stressing that the time for peace has come.

The panel questioned the field and political backgrounds of these recent positions on the two sides, what the Sudanese Sovereignty Council meant by talking about the fact that the Jeddah platform lacks mechanisms and procedural issues, and the vision of the two parties to activate that platform as required for a ceasefire.

Tie must

In an explanation of the position of the armed forces, Majzoub explained that the Rapid Support Forces' failure to abide by the previous truces and their commission of looting and looting in the capital and Darfur and crimes against humanity requires linking any future negotiations to mechanisms that commit these forces to what is reached and ensure the exit of the rebel forces from Khartoum.

He stressed that the armed forces are counting on the Jeddah platform to achieve progress in addressing the crisis, but they want to document any agreements with these mechanisms so that what happened in the previous truces is not repeated, pointing out that the negotiating team in Jeddah has a mandate, but it has a ceiling that there is a mandatory for the other party with the recognized principles of any truces or ceasefire agreement.

He pointed out that there is a US plan aimed at returning the scene to the pre-war era, and is based on the handover of power to civilians, and the exit of the two parties to the military conflict from it, stressing that the armed forces do not mind that, but will not accept that the Rapid Support Forces remain a military force independent of the armed forces of the state.

With regard to what officials in the Sovereign Council said about the necessary mechanisms for the Jeddah process, Majzoub believes that it remains the most likely path and the most capable of achieving progress in addressing the crisis if coordination is made with the committee emanating from the Conference of Sudan's neighboring countries held in Cairo.

Sub-talk

Sudanese writer and political analyst Hafez Kabir believes that talking about any truce and the conditions and mechanisms for holding it is a sub-talk that can be bypassed, and what is required is a quick start of negotiations on the causes of the current conflict, which will achieve the goal of protecting civilians and ending the crisis.

Speaking behind the news, he pointed out that the different concept and definition of truces between the two sides would not achieve progress in reaching a real truce, as the army believes that it is necessary to withdraw soldiers from their positions and condition that they do not move, which the support forces refuse to accept.

According to Kabir, since the first day of the conflict, the Rapid Support Movement confirmed its readiness to sit down and negotiate, "which the armed forces rejected and confirmed their ability to resolve, and with the continuation of the conflict and its failure to do so, it retreated from this position, but it needs to redefine the subject of negotiation."