Biden to welcome UAE leader Monday to discuss Gaza, Sudan

US President Joe Biden speaks at a reception in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 18, 2024. Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden will welcome UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday for talks on Gaza and Sudan, the White House said, despite concern over the Gulf power’s role in Sudan.

The visit will be the first ever in Washington by a UAE president and he will also meet separately with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running to succeed Biden.

Biden and Harris “will discuss with President Mohamed, obviously, the crisis in Gaza, the UAE’s essential role in addressing the humanitarian crisis there, and the crisis in Sudan,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday.

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On Sudan, “we all must increase efforts to open routes for humanitarian assistance and ultimately to secure a ceasefire,” Kirby said.

The trip announcement comes a day after Biden issued a statement urging the renewal of negotiations in Sudan’s brutal civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of backing the RSF, which the United States accuses of carrying out crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing centered in the war-scarred Darfur region.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit Wednesday to Cairo, warned the RSF over its months-long siege of North Darfur state’s capital El-Fasher, where a UN-backed assessment found famine in a nearby displacement camp.

A recent RSF commitment during US-backed talks in Switzerland to a code of conduct for its fighters “is now threatened by a new RSF offensive in El-Fasher, already resulting in the deaths and displacement of thousands of vulnerable people,” Blinken said.

“The RSF must take every step to protect the lives of innocents and respect its commitment to protect civilians,” he said, as he also urged the army to “halt indiscriminate bombing.”

The UAE has denied backing the RSF. The wealthy Gulf nation had tapped Sudanese paramilitary forces during its operations in Yemen against Iranian-backed Huthi insurgents.