Sudanese army units loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have gone on heightened alert amid intelligence warnings that Israel could launch strikes on Sudanese soil in retaliation for General al-Burhan’s forces (SAF) expanding military partnership with Iran, regional security officials and local media said Thursday.
Officers at the SAF’s wartime headquarters in Port Sudan ordered Iranian-supplied drones, missiles and surveillance gear removed from known bases and stashed inside densely populated neighborhoods “to complicate targeting,” the officials said.
Dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) technicians who have been advising Sudanese crews on the equipment are also being discreetly flown out of the country, they added.
A separate directive instructs government spokespeople to refrain from commenting publicly on the 12-day Iran-Israel war that ended in a U.S.-brokered cease-fire this week, leaving state-aligned outlets to carry only terse, neutral wire copy on the fighting.
Israeli news outlets first reported in April that officials in Tel Aviv were “furious” over Iran’s deepening role in Sudan’s two-year civil war and were weighing “preventive action” against IRGC assets on Sudanese territory.
Those reports followed revelations that Iran had shipped Mohajer-6 and Ababil-3 attack drones, along with precision-guided munitions, to Burhan’s SAF after the two countries restored diplomatic ties in July 2024.
Flight-tracking data reviewed by Western intelligence shows at least three clandestine IRGC airlifts to Port Sudan since last summer. The most recent, a March 17 sortie by a Qeshm Fars Air Boeing 747 (tail number EP-FAB), delivered drones and anti-tank rockets before returning to Tehran the same day with transponders briefly switched off, according to an Iran International investigation.
Iran’s weapons pipeline has proved decisive on the battlefield. A Reuters special report in April 2024 found that the SAF’s new Iranian drones helped halt Rapid Support Forces advances around Khartoum and allowed Burhan’s troops to regain territory.
But the influx has also raised fears that Sudan could become the next proxy arena in the Iran-Israel confrontation. Analysts warn that any Israeli strike on Sudanese targets risks widening a conflict that has already spilled across the region after Israel’s raids on Iranian nuclear and military sites earlier this month.
Burhan’s government denies seeking to host permanent Iranian bases, yet junta officials in Port Sudan acknowledge that Tehran’s support has been critical since ties were renewed. “Without the drones we would not hold this city,” a senior military source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Sudan severed relations with Iran in 2016 under pressure from Gulf Arab states but reversed course as the civil war dragged on. In December 2024 Bloomberg and other outlets reported a surge of Iranian arms flights, while regional diplomats said Israel viewed the rapprochement as an attempt by Burhan to pressure Jerusalem for diplomatic recognition and security assistance of his own.
Israeli officials have declined comment on any prospective action against Sudan. For now, military convoys continue to shuttle Iranian hardware into makeshift depots beneath Port Sudan’s soccer stadium and along residential streets, residents say — a sign that, cease-fire or not, both Burhan and his Iranian patrons are bracing for the next phase of a widening shadow war.
