The growing ties between Iran and Sudan have put their neighbors on edge, and Washington on alert. Days before Rafsanjani’s visit, the U.S. State Department threatened Sudanese officials with “grave consequences” if an act of terrorism were traced to Khartoum. Until 1985, when pro-Western Jaafar Nimeiry was overthrown while visiting America, Sudan was a sometime U.S. ally. Racked by eight years of civil war, it has suffered famine and near economic collapse. Since the Islamic military regime seized power in June 1989, at least four coup plots have been uncovered. The government routinely arrests and tortures political prisoners. Last year saw the return of Islamic law-including 40 lashes for drinking alcohol.
Does the Iran-Sudan alliance pose a real threat to the West? So far, it’s hard to tell. Relations between the two countries blossomed, ironically, as a result of Khartoum’s support for Saddam Hussein during the gulf war. By backing Iraq, Sudan forfeited Kuwaiti and Saudi patronage-and created an opportunity for Iran, whose influence in Lebanon has waned, to step in. As yet there’s no threat of a huge arms buildup: Teheran reportedly sent weapons captured during its eight-year war with Baghdad. Economic aid has been limited to pledges of cut-rate oil and road-building equipment.
But Arab nations are still jangling from last month’s events in Algeria. Before the military cracked down, fundamentalists won a landslide victory at the polls-sending an unambiguous message to moderate as well as despotic regimes in the region. Three years. after ousting a democratically elected government, Khartoum is eager to see the spread of Islamic revolution across the region.
Egypt, once a close Sudanese ally, has bolstered security along its southern border and warned Khartoum to stop interfering in internal affairs. Last week President Hosni Mubarak told Maj. Gen. Zubair Muhammad Saleh, the deputy chairman of Sudan’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council, to back off from Iran. He also told Saleh to distance the government from Hassan al-Turabi, the Western-educated secretary general of the National Islamic Front (NIF), whom Mubarak has repeatedly accused of trying to smuggle terrorists into Egypt. Even Libya, which provides subsidized oil to Sudan, is turning a cold shoulder. Muammar Kaddafi, says a U.S. State Department official, “is frightened by the sectarian fundamentalism swirling around the area.” Tunisia recently recalled its ambassador from Khartoum: Sudan has twice provided diplomatic passports-and false identities-to Sheik Rached al-Ghannouchi, the head of Tunisia’s militant fundamentalist movement.
Washington has warned Khartoum about the company it keeps. Sudan, says a U.S. analyst, has become “a place where Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard can operate out of sight and provide intelligence and logistical support to a terrorist operation.” Other diplomats suspect the country is sponsoring training camps for radical Palestinians and Islamic militants who have been squeezed out of Libya or Syrian-controlled Lebanon, as Tripoli and Damascus try to curry favor with the West. “Rubbish,” scoffs al-Turabi, who is widely regarded as the de facto leader of Sudan. “The diplomatic community here is very vulnerable to rumors.”
Fact is, the Sudanese police last year stumbled on what appeared to be an NIF training operation-a group of Palestinians, Sudanese and Egyptians with a stash of arms and hard currency. “They were very innocent,” insists al-Turabi, claiming the men were about to join the Islamic mujahedin in Afghanistan, and were later deported. “This is a very peaceful country.” Washington and its friends are watching closely to see if al-Turabi keeps his word.
