Saudi Arabia-Iran Rivalry In Africa: Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia Part Ways With Tehran As Riyadh Influence Grows

By Morgan Winsor

As tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia escalated Thursday, a growing number of Muslim countries in East Africa have started to choose sides. Sudan, Djibouti and now Somalia are standing by Riyadh and cutting ties with Tehran, a move that signals a shift away from Iranian influence in the region and a firm alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Sunni kingdom.

But while these African countries will likely lose out on modest aid, arms deals and other support from their relationships with Tehran, political and religious experts said Riyadh will likely be offering incentives in return for their allegiance.

“Cutting all these ties will definitely have economic implications, and of course someone needs to come in and fill that void,” Terje Ostebo, director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies and an associate professor in religion and African studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “There’s probably an economic package behind this. I would not be surprised if there were promises of financial support in return for severing ties with Iran.”

The regional struggle for political and religious influence between Saudi Arabia and its foe Iran has played out for years. The two Middle East powers are supporting opposite sides in Syria’s civil war, and Riyadh blames Tehran for the conflict in Yemen. Their relations took a turn for the worse Monday when Saudi Arabia announced it was severing ties with Iran following an attack last weekend on its embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, during protests against the execution of a Shiite cleric. Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia followed suit, but the shift away from Iran is sharpest in Khartoum.

“Perhaps no other country in Africa has the decline of Iranian influence been more dramatic than in Sudan,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

Sudan

Until recently, the government in Sudan’s capital Khartoum was closer with Tehran than with Riyadh. Sudan enjoyed arms deals with Shiite-led Iran for many years. Iranians trained Sudanese intelligence forces and helped Khartoum build its own weapons industry.

In return, Iran manufactured weapons on Sudanese soil and used the Sunni majority nation as a channel to ship arms to Shia Islamic militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon. As a result, Israeli war planes allegedly bombed Sudanese military targets numerous times in 2009 and 2012, according to Sudan’s government, though Israel hasn’t officially confirmed the attacks. Khartoum also hosted Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic group Hamas for training in 2013.

Around that time, Iran’s regional foe Saudi Arabia barred Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from flying over its territory on his way to Tehran, and some Saudi banks suspended dealings with Sudan. Since then, Sudan has shuttered Iran’s cultural centers in Khartoum and provincial capitals, and Bashir joined the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.

Sudan broke off relations with Iran the same day Saudi Arabia made its announcement. Khartoum’s move marks the final break with Tehran and most likely the end of any remaining arms deals, political experts said. Iran may provide weapons, but Saudi Arabia houses more than half a million Sudanese expatriates who represent millions of dollars in remittances, a vital source of hard currency to an African nation deeply entrenched in poverty.

“Iran’s ability to use diplomatic missions as a chance for nondiplomatic activities in the region will certainly be very much hampered,” Pham said in a telephone interview Thursday.

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