The US State Department has rejected a proposal by regional powers to arrange a meeting with Ali Karti, secretary-general of Sudan’s Islamic Movement, according to a diplomatic source cited by December.
Karti, a former Sudanese foreign minister, was sanctioned by Washington in September 2023 over accusations that he obstructed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Sudan’s war and helped undermine the country’s civilian-led transition after the fall of Omar al-Bashir.
At the time, the US State Department said Karti had led efforts to weaken the transitional government headed by former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok following Bashir’s ouster in 2019. Washington also accused him of opposing attempts to secure a truce between General al-Burhan’s SAF and the Rapid Support Forces after fighting erupted in April 2023.
The reported US refusal comes weeks after British envoy to Sudan, Richard Crowder, held two separate meetings with Karti in Istanbul, where the Islamist leader had relocated from Qatar for medical treatment.
According to the report, US officials instead met former foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour in Cairo last week, partly because he is not under sanctions. Ghandour is viewed as belonging to a minority current within Sudan’s Islamic Movement and the dissolved National Congress Party that advocates stepping back from open political activity until elections are held after a transitional period.
Observers said the meeting with Ghandour did not represent a shift in the regional and international position, including that of the Quad, which rejects any political role for the dissolved ruling party in the period following the end of the war.
