Washington is pressing to resolve the Sudan crisis: a race of interests or a "obsession with chaos"?

Washington - The United States is seeking to find solutions to the "complex and thorny" Sudanese crisis , in order to avoid a breakdown in the security contract and a slide into chaos, in light of the divergence of positions between the civil and military components, and the continuation of protests.

There is a question that comes to mind whether the American efforts exerted on the Sudanese political arena support the people's choices in freedom and peace as announced, or are they looking for a military-civilian balance in the coming period of transition?

A US delegation visited Sudan on January 17 last, and it lasted for 3 days; To discuss the crisis that began with the army commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, taking measures on October 25, most notably imposing a state of emergency and dissolving the Sovereignty Councils and the Transitional Ministers, which political forces consider a "military coup", in exchange for the army's denial.

Al-Burhan and Abdullah Hamdouk signed, last November 21, an agreement that included the latter’s return to the presidency of the transitional government, the formation of a government of competencies, and the release of political detainees, before Hamdok resigned on January 2, in light of protests rejecting this agreement and demanding full civilian rule. Dozens were killed.

In their conversations with Anatolia, observers believe that the United States and its allies in the region want a reality in Sudan that "guarantees the continuity of their interests," so they will support the efforts currently being made by the United Nations and other parties, to end the current crisis.

Ending the violence

On January 20, the US delegation headed by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly V and Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, affirmed that their country would not resume assistance to the Government of Sudan in the absence of an end to the violence and the restoration of a civilian-led government that reflects the will of the people.

At the conclusion of a visit to Khartoum, the delegation announced support for the recently launched political process led by Sudan, facilitated by the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) as a means to assist civilian stakeholders in identifying a common path to overcome the political impasse and to pledge full US support.

However, according to a statement by the Sovereignty Council, a meeting between the President of the Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti”, with the American delegation led to the two parties’ agreement to form a government of national competencies, hold free and fair elections, and the Sudanese parties enter into a comprehensive dialogue to reach consensus. National out of the crisis.

Before the American delegation left, Al-Burhan issued a decision assigning 15 ministers to a new caretaker government.

A vital region

For the strategic expert and political analyst, Amin Ismail Majzoub, the United States views Sudan as a vital area for American national security, so it cares about it as a geographic location, natural resources, manpower, and a balance of power in the region with other global powers.

Majzoub said, “The United States does not care who rules, and if it finds a military regime that fulfills its demands and interests, it will support it, and if it finds a civilian regime that achieves its interests, it will support it as well.”

He added: "As for the issue of democracy and civil rule, it is in the Americans' calculations that it is carrots offered to some countries and prevented from other countries, and there is a lot of evidence in the Americans' dealings with military or civilian regimes."

Majzoub added: "Therefore, in this case, the Americans are keen that the Russians do not come to Sudan and not give them bases on the Red Sea, and that China does not come and compete for oil resources and energy sources in it, and that its fines from the European Union do not come to it to invest in uranium and export markets."

It is expected that "the United States will support a balance between civilians and military in the next stage to complete the transitional period, and when the elections come, it will have some form of control over who comes in the next stage."

And the political analyst went on to say, "In my estimation, the United States tends to balance, share power and the participation of the military, considering that its interests fluctuate between the former military regime, the military's acceptance of normalization in the transitional period, and the military relations that have grown in the past two years."

International and regional movements

The country is currently witnessing regional and international movements, and 6 international, regional and local initiatives have been proposed, foremost of which is the UN initiative under the auspices of the “UNITAMS” mission, in addition to what was proposed by IGAD, the African Union, Juba, university directors and the National Umma Party to end the crisis. .

In this regard, the writer and political analyst, Abdullah Rizk, says: “There are no American efforts, at the present time, but rather international efforts. America withdrew from the task of mediating and directly communicating with the two sides of the crisis, with its military and civil components, and left the space to the UN envoy, Volker Peretz, satisfied with supporting his efforts.”

On January 8, the head of the (UNITAMS) mission, Volker Peretz, announced the launch of "preliminary" consultations for a comprehensive political process between the Sudanese parties to resolve the country's crisis.

Rizk refers to the position adopted by Washington at the beginning of the crisis when it rejected the “October 25 coup,” and called for a return to the constitutional document and the return of Hamdok to his position as a transitional prime minister with all his powers, and its demand for the release of detainees and the lifting of the state of emergency.

He added: “Then America and its allies welcomed Hamdok’s return to his constitutional position and the release of constitutional detainees, and considered the agreement (November 21), according to which Hamdok’s return to his official site was a first step, but no step followed until Hamdok left the official scene on January 2.” .

Rizk believes that this matter is "a preliminary indication of the weakness of American influence, through Washington's move, on the state of the crisis, as the threats did not affect the position of the military, and at the same time, hesitation began to appear in Washington's direction towards imposing any sanctions on those obstructing the democratic transition."

He continued by saying: "It was reported that a dispute occurred between the US envoy to Sudan and Ethiopia, Jeffrey Feltman, on the one hand, and the US Assistant Secretary of State, Molly V, regarding sanctions,

It seems that the resignation of Feltman, who supports the imposition of sanctions, to vacate the site for his successor, David Satterfield, is related to the fate of the American endeavors and their reaching a dead end.

Rizk asserts that "since the November 21 agreement, it seemed that a shift occurred in the American position, and that of its allies, towards dealing with the coup as a fait accompli, and practically abandoning the slogan of returning to the legitimate path of transition with a civilian leadership."

He points out that "Washington left to the UN envoy, after this agreement, the task of finding common denominators between the two sides of the conflict in the country, a trend that collides with the adoption of all revolutionary forces of a line rejecting negotiation with the military component and dialogue with it or giving it any legitimacy."

Rizk explains that America, and its allies in the region, tend to arrange the situation in line with their interests, and it is widely reported that countries, including Israel, Egypt and the UAE, are greatly concerned with the situation in Sudan, and exert an influence on the course of events in it, and support, in particular, the proof, and its survival on Head of the Authority during the transitional period.

Premonition of fear

The writer and political analyst, Al-Jamil Al-Fadil, believes that “the United States may be preyed by fear of the consequences of any radical transformations that emerge from the womb of the popular revolutions. They do not know their consequences, and it is difficult for them to control and control their final outcomes, based on their experience with the Iranian popular revolution that overthrew the throne of Shah Muhammad Reza.” Pahlavi in ​​1979.

Al-Fadil says: "I now imagine that Washington is trying with various tricks to search for a key to block the flow and flow of torrents from the Sudanese revolutionary street, in preparation for the production of a new equation that would absorb the state of popular anger and outburst."

He believes that "the United States and its allies in the region want an equation that guarantees them the continuation of their interests in Sudan, and ends the state of internal pressures facing the administration of President Joe Biden from the US Congress."

Al-Fadil continues by saying: “What is important is that the type of solutions that Washington is preparing now through the United Nations initiative or its direct contacts with the resistance committees, families of martyrs, parties and professionals, all fall within the context of the search for a key to the crisis according to these interests.”

He adds, "But this search for the key remains like searching for a small needle in a huge haystack."(Anatolia)

After his crisis with Algeria, Spain will buy gas for Morocco and send it through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline

London - Spain decided to allow Morocco to use the Maghreb-Europe pipeline to obtain natural gas to alleviate its needs, after Algeria had suspended work on the pipeline at the end of last October.

Morocco was getting its natural gas needs mainly from Algeria at preferential prices as a result of the gas pipeline passing through its territory towards Spain and Portugal. After the crisis in relations between Morocco and Algeria , the latter took the decision to end the work of this pipeline and limit itself to an alternative pipeline from its territory towards Andalusia.

At the time, energy experts talked about the problems that Morocco will face in obtaining gas due to the high prices, and how to supply it by virtue of its lack of ports equipped to receive liquefied gas and not gas in its normal nature. It was talked about the flow in the opposite direction. This process is manifested in Morocco buying gas from the international market, transporting it to a Spanish port, and then pumping the gas through the pipeline in the opposite direction.

In this regard, Europe Press Agency quoted official sources, on Wednesday, as saying that the Madrid government had accepted Morocco's request to receive gas ships loaded with liquefied gas, convert it to normal, and then pump it through the pipeline to Morocco. The sources pointed out that meeting Morocco's request comes within the framework of contributing to its energy security and then to its capacity as an important partner. What remains interesting is that Spain will acquire gas from the international market in favor of Morocco, and the bill will be high for Morocco and will increase the energy challenges it faces.

It seems that Morocco’s resort to Spain, despite the crisis between them, is due to the failure of the Rabat government to obtain offshore gas platforms to store gas, and the lack of a port equipped to receive and transfer liquefied gas.

It seems that the agreement will extend for years due to the difficulty of Morocco finding a suitable port to receive gas, and the Tangier-Mediterranean port may be prepared for this purpose.

Relations between Rabat and Madrid have been going through an open crisis for nearly a year, after which the ambassador was withdrawn from Madrid, as a result of a misunderstanding over the Western Sahara file.

Kenya: Nile Perch skin transformed into leather

Fishing has always been the main source of income in Kisumu, a town built on the shores of Lake Victoria, 340 kilometers from Nairobi. For more than 20 years, hundreds of women have joined this industry and are transforming the skin of the Nile Perch into leather.

The meticulous and repetitive work consists of scraping the fish scales using knives. The skins are then resold to foreign markets, notably to Canada, the United States, Denmark, Ethiopia and South Africa for the manufacture of shoes and various leather goods.

"I have been doing this job for 20 years and it allows me to support my children, to pay their school fees. This job is mainly done by women because men find it difficult to sit still for 8 hours straight .For us women, that's no problem for us." , explains Céline Adhiambo , a 38-year-old fish skin seller.

In 2010, 42-year-old businessman Newton Owino saw an opportunity that prompted him to start processing Nile Perch hide into leather through his company, Alisam Product Development and Design . He buys fish skins from a group of 80 women. The creation of his company is a response to the growing demand for leather from non-mammalian sources.

“Kisumu is home to nearly seven fish filleting industries. The filleting industries produce nearly 150,000 metric tons of fish waste annually,” he explains.

But that poses problems, according to Newton Owino, who is an industrial chemist by training. "All this waste is the cause of many environmental problems, including eutrophication, that is, it enriches the lake, causing what currently covers the lake, namely aquatic weeds" , assures- he. Invasive aquatic plants like water hyacinth negatively impact the ecosystem of Lake Victoria by preventing aquatic life from accessing adequate sunlight.

Impact on the environment

To minimize the negative impact on the environment, Newton Owino uses plant extracts as tanning agents , unlike many companies that use toxic chemicals.

"Our tanning technology uses only green chemistry, i.e. the use of plant compounds that are available locally. It has many advantages in the sense that it protects human health, animal health, plant and environmental health," he explains.

To turn fish skins into leather, Newton Owino uses a custom-built machine that soaks the fish skin for an hour. To strengthen the skin and remove the foul odor from it, banana extract is added. Next, salt is added to tame the bacterial infection of the skin, which is then soaked for 8 hours before being dried.

The use of fish leather is becoming increasingly prolific in the fashion industry and an increasing number of high-end international brands are using this material.