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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Iran Tried to Persuade Sudan to Allow Naval Base on Its Red Sea Coast

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Comments: 0

Original Source: Wall Street Journal
By Nicholas Bariyo and Benoit Faucon
Updated March 3, 2024 12:25 am ET

Tehran, which has supplied drones for Khartoum’s war with a rebel warlord, pledged a warship in exchange for access but was turned down.

IranianWarship_picsource_tasnimnews

Iran unsuccessfully pressed Sudan to let it build a permanent naval base on the African country’s Red Sea coast, something that would have allowed Tehran to monitor maritime traffic to and from the Suez Canal and Israel, according to a senior Sudanese intelligence official.

Iran has supplied Sudan’s military with explosive drones to use in its fight with a rebel warlord and offered to provide a helicopter-carrying warship if Sudan had granted permission for the base, said Ahmad Hasan Mohamed, an intelligence adviser to Sudan’s military leader.

“The Iranians said they wanted to use the base for intelligence gathering,” Mohamed said in an interview. “They also wanted to station warships there.” He said Khartoum turned down Iran’s proposal to avoid alienating the U.S. and Israel.

A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York declined to comment.

A naval base on the Red Sea would allow Tehran to tighten its grip on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, where it is helping Yemen-based Houthi rebels launch attacks on commercial vessels. Iran and the Houthis say the attacks are aimed at punishing Israel and its allies for the fighting in Gaza. Iran’s regional rivals, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, all have direct access to the waterway.

Iran has also been sending increasingly sophisticated weapons to its Houthi allies in Yemen, enhancing their ability to attack merchant vessels and disrupt international commerce despite weeks of U.S.-led airstrikes. A U.S.-led multinational force has also been deployed to protect seaborne traffic.

Sudan had close ties with Iran and its Palestinian ally Hamas under longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir. After Bashir’s ouster in a 2019 coup, the leader of the country’s military junta, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, initiated a rapprochement with the U.S. in an effort to end international sanctions. He also moved to normalize relations with Israel.

Iran’s request to build a base highlights how regional powers are seeking to take advantage of Sudan’s 10-month-old civil war to gain a foothold in the country, a strategic crossroads between the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa with a 400-mile Red Sea coastline.

Sudan’s military has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Burhan’s former second-in-command, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, since mid-April. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“Sudan bought drones from Iran because we needed more accurate weapons, to reduce the loss of human life and respect the international humanitarian law,” Mohamed said.

The explosive drones have helped Burhan reverse losses against the RSF, according to regional officials and analysts following the fighting. In recent weeks, the government has regained control of important areas of Khartoum and Omdurman, its twin city across the Nile.

The Biden administration has accused both the Sudanese military and the RSF of committing war crimes. The U.S. alleges the RSF also has committed crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

U.N. officials have criticized Sudan for aerial bombing of civilian neighborhoods and depriving Sudanese civilians of desperately needed humanitarian aid. U.N. agencies have also accused the RSF of atrocities, including ethnically motivated attacks in Darfur.

Sudan’s military and the RSF have denied the U.S. and U.N. accusations.

In February, the U.S. voiced concern over Iranian arms shipments to the Sudanese army. John Godfrey, the U.S. ambassador to Sudan at the time, said reports of Iranian aid to Khartoum are “very troubling and a source of great concern for us.”

On Monday, the State Department appointed Tom Perriello, a former congressman, as the U.S. special envoy for Sudan.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Egypt has supplied drones to the Sudanese military and trained Sudanese troops in how to use them. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, has been sending weapons to the RSF, the Journal reported in August. An unpublished report by U.N. investigators that has been reviewed by the Journal also detailed U.A.E. weapons shipments.

The U.A.E. has denied making any such deliveries. Egyptian officials have said the country isn’t taking sides in the conflict and is working to end it.

Dubai is the biggest importer of Sudanese gold and in 2022 a U.A.E.-based consortium signed a $6 billion deal to build a new port facility on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.

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