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Yasir Arman to Asharq Al-Awsat: The Sudanese Brotherhood is Close to Regaining Power

Member of the Central Council of Sudan’s Alliance for Freedom and Change, Yasir Arman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Member of the Central Council of Sudan’s Alliance for Freedom and Change, Yasir Arman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Yasir Arman to Asharq Al-Awsat: The Sudanese Brotherhood is Close to Regaining Power

Member of the Central Council of Sudan’s Alliance for Freedom and Change, Yasir Arman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Member of the Central Council of Sudan’s Alliance for Freedom and Change, Yasir Arman (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Member of the Central Council of Sudan’s Alliance for Freedom and Change, Yasir Arman, warned against the return of the Sudanese Brotherhood to power.

Arman, who served as political advisor to former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that the supporters of ousted President Omar al-Bashir were trying to exploit the armed forces as a “Trojan Horse to restore their lost paradise.”

“The former regime is trying to use the armed forces as a protective political shield… to restore its lost paradise,” he said, adding: “The conflict is not between civilians and the military, as some people try to portray it; rather, it is between the Islamic movement regime and the Sudanese people. The Islamists want to use the armed forces against the wishes of the people.”

The Sudanese official explained that more than 35,000 employees of the former regime were currently at the top of the civil service, security services and other bodies.

“This great confusion caused by the remnants of the Bashir regime - who are accusing others of wanting to dismantle the armed forces - is intended to regain power,” he noted.

Arman stressed that the Sudan Alliance for Freedom and Change called for reforming and building the armed forces and the security sector, in accordance with internationally-approved programs, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and the withdrawal of Islamists from the regular forces.

“Regional powers must know that the Islamists of the National Congress Party are now at the closest point to seizing power again. Their return will not be at the expense of the Sudanese people alone, but at the expense of the region and the international community as well,” the official warned.

Asked about the Quartet initiative to solve the Sudan crisis, Arman pointed to the need to include regional and international parties that support the transition and the political process.

“Any political process that the people do not approve of is doomed to failure,” he said, adding: “I’m not talking about a settlement; because any solution or political process that overlooks issues that involve impunity… will not work.”

Arman stressed the need to address war crimes, genocide and the causes that led to the secession of South Sudan, in order to redefine a new national project and rebuild the country.

On the possibility of negotiating the removal of the current leaders of the army, he said: “I’m not talking about negotiation; rather, it is about a peaceful transition to a democratic civilian authority that is acceptable to the people, according to a credibly designed process, and not in closed rooms…”

“Tomorrow, the people should not be surprised by a prime minister who has been approved by the army. The process should be carried out with genuine popular participation, drawing on the experiences of many countries that have witnessed a transition to a real democratic civil authority,” the Sudanese official remarked.

Asked whether the participation of the head of the Sovereignty Council in the funeral of the Queen of Britain, and Sudan’s speech at the United Nations, were considered as a new direction for the international community, Arman said: “I cannot speak on behalf of the international community; but what I know is that the international community will not accept you unless your people accept you, and that the main issue is within the country and not with the international community. External painkillers will not be useful in ending the coup crisis.”

Commenting on talks about the rapprochement between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Freedom and Change Alliance, the Sudanese official told Asharq Al-Awsat: “No rapprochement can be achieved at the expense of the armed forces or at the expense of RSF, as both options are wrong. The armed forces will remain the main basis on which the reform of the military and security sector must take place.”

He added: “We don’t want sedition; we want stability for our country. We are not seeking to dismantle the armed forces. This is a big lie.”

Arman emphasized the need to define the difference between the agenda of the revolutionary forces and the political process to overthrow the coup.

“There are important forces, and they may be interested in the democratic transition. Dealing with them needs mechanisms and a different perception. If this does not happen, the forces of the revolution may pay the price of confusing them with the forces of democratic transition,” he explained.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.