Sudanese Diplomacy “Mitigates” Draft Resolution on Sudan

New York, Sudanhorizon
The UN Security Council is set to hold a session Monday to review the extension of the mandate of the Panel of Experts which assist the Sudan Sanctions Committee according to Resolution 1591 for another year, to March 12th 2026, which is the resolution that both the rebel Rapid Support Militias and the United Arab Emirates have ceaselessly continued to violate through shipment of arms to Darfur and attack against civilians in Al Fashir and in the IDP camps in Zamzam, and through the prevention of the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, as stated by the agencies affiliated to the UN itself.
A report published by the UN Security Council news website, which provides backgrounds and contexts information about the resolutions that are expected to be voted by the Council, shows that the Sudanese diplomacy has played a major role in preventing the expansion of the mandate of the Panel of Experts or the date of its work, a matter that made the panholder, i.e. the country within the UN Security Council permanent members, in this case the United States of America, to accept a compromise in place of adopting a hard line stand, away from what it used to consider as the Red Line, as it was seeing both China and Russia backing the Sudanese position within the Council.
The Security Council had lately renewed the mandate of the Panel of Experts that assists the Sudan Sanctions Committee set by Resolution 1591 and the Decision 2722 of 8 March 2024 whose mandate was extended up to 12th of Marsh 2025. The Resolution was adopted by a majority of 13 votes and the abstention of two votes (China and Russia).
And according to the UN Security Council news website the duration of the mandate was the most difficult part during those negotiations. The members of the Council have received the Final Report of the Panel of Experts in December 2024. The Report was not published yet up the drafting of this article.
This delay has been attributed to the appointment of the heads of the sub committees a matter that prevented the Sudan Sanctions Committee of the Resolution 1591 from discussing the results and the recommendations of the Final Report. As a practice the Final Reports are not published until they are discussed in the committee’s meeting.
And it appears that the Final Report of the Committee provides a description for the various aspects of the conflict in the Sudan, including its dynamics, the funding for the armed group, the humanitarian impacts ad the violation of the international humanitarian laws and the various types of recruitments by the various parties to the conflict, the spread of the arms and the violations of the sanctions systems, the impact of the conflict on the regional security and stability among other issues.
The Resolution in blue extends the mandate of the Panel of Experts in assisting the Sudan Sanctions Committee of the Resolution 1591 up to March 2026. And it asks the Panel of Experts to submit to the committee a provisional report about its activities by August 12 2025 and a Final Report defining its results and recommendations by January 13, 2026. And during the negations it seems that the group of A3 Plus, Algeria, Serra Leon, Somalia and Ghana- worked to remove most of the introductory and executive paragraphs of the Resolution, in line with the Sudanese demand of keeping the text short and precise. And while the pen holder about this file, which is the United States of America, seemed to have wanted to keep a general text of the previous text with technical amendments introduced, the A3 Plus have demanded to reach a compromise solution. Like in the past year, the most contentious part of the negotiations on the draft resolution was the term of office. The United States circulated an initial draft of the text to Council members during the first week of February, proposing a technical extension of the committee’s mandate for 12 months. The penholder held one round of negotiations on February 4, after which a revised draft of the text was put under silence until February 6. However, the “3+1” members broke their silence on this draft for the duration of the committee’s term. This group of members, along with China, Russia and Pakistan, supported Sudan’s request to extend the committee’s mandate for six months in order to align its mandate with the renewal of the sanctions regime on Sudan under Resolution 1591, which occurs in September. The penholder nevertheless appeared to push for a 12-month extension, which appears to have been supported by some other council members. Diplomats typically use the term “technical extension” to describe a brief resolution that extends the mandate of a peace process without changing its core mandate or tasks. The term traditionally refers to a shorter-than-usual extension, but members increasingly use the term to describe routine mandate extensions where the content does not change.
Given the divergent views on the issue, the penholder eventually proposed an 18-month extension to address the concerns of members who sought to align the Panel’s mandate with the renewal of the 1591 sanctions regime, but China and Russia apparently rejected this proposal, insisting on a six-month extension. However, this was still unacceptable to the United States, which apparently saw it as a red line during the negotiations.
The UN Secretariat also appears to have believed that a six-month extension might not be sufficient, given the time required to recruit members of the Panel of Experts and secure visas for them to travel to Sudan. There have been previous instances of visa denials or delays by the Sudanese government. In addition, the experts need sufficient time to fulfill their mandate and submit a comprehensive report to the Sanctions Committee.
The negotiations apparently continued via email exchanges, with the United States insisting on a 12- or 18-month extension. Of these two options, Sudan appears to have preferred the first. Therefore, it appears that the A3 plus members agreed to the text based on this understanding.