Sudan and UAE to conduct joint military exercise soon
April 12, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army on Wednesday revealed that arrangements are underway to conduct a joint military exercise with the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) army.
In press statements Wednesday, Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) spokesperson Ahmed Khalifa al-Shami said: “arrangements are underway to conduct a military drill with the UAE’s army but no date has been fixed yet”.
He pointed that the joint Sudanese-Saudi air force exercise which was conducted recently was a success.
Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir Sunday attended the end of a 12-day joint Sudanese-Saudi military drill at the Meroe air base, 350 kilometres north of the capital, Khartoum.
Dubbed “Blue Shield” the exercise involved some 250 Saudi air force members and over 450 Sudanese militaries. Sudan took part in the exercise with more than two dozen fighter planes including MiG-29s and Sukhoi jets while Saudi Arabia sent “18” F-15 fighter jets and Eurofighter Typhoons.
Sudan managed to achieve a breakthrough in ties with UAE after a long period of strained relations over Khartoum’s close ties with Tehran.
UAE is in a long-standing territorial dispute with Iran over the three Gulf islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb.
Iran refuses international arbitration over the dispute and insists that its sovereignty over the islands is non-negotiable.
However, in January 2016, Sudan severed ties with Iran after an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran amid a row over the execution of a Shiite Muslim cleric.
(ST)