Sudanese FM: Iran never asked for building naval base in Sudan
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Al-Sadiq Ali says his country has never received a request from Iran to build a base in the African country, rejecting American media reports on that issue as “incorrect”.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a senior Sudanese intelligence official, claimed on Sunday that Iran had pledged to give Sudan a warship in exchange for allowing it to “build a permanent naval base on the African country’s Red Sea coast”. The New York-based newspaper also claimed that Sudan turned down Iran’s request to avoid cutting ties with the US and the Israeli regime.
Later in the day, Sudan’s top diplomat rejected the “incorrect” report in an interview with Russian Sputnik news agency on the sidelines of the 2024 Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye.
"I read The Wall Street Journal article today, this report is incorrect … Iran has never asked Sudan to build an Iranian base. I recently visited Iran, and this was not discussed," Sadiq said.
Tehran and Khartoum resumed their diplomatic relations in October 2023 after seven years and decided to re-open embassies in their respective capitals.
Sudan cut ties with Iran in 2016 in line with the same move by Saudi Arabia over protests in Iran against Riyadh’s execution of top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Tehran and Riyadh restored their diplomatic relations in March 2023 under a China-brokered deal.
In early February this year, Sudan’s foreign minister visited Iran where he lamented the discontinuation of diplomatic relations between the two countries and expressed Khartoum’s serious will to restore and expand bilateral ties.