Egypt concerned over Qatar’s activities in South Sudan

After the visit of South Sudan’s security advisor to the President, Tut Qalawak to Doha where he met Qatar’s defense minister Khalid bin Muhammed, Egypt is raising concerns over what could be possible moves of Qatar in the African country. 

The tension is the result of the fall of its ally Omar al-Bashir in Sudan and Cairo fears that Qatar’s involvement in South Sudan will be a threat to the peace of the region. This recent fear is also because of Doha’s curiosity about the kind of relationship that is between Cairo and Juba. He was also reportedly interested to know whether South Sudan had promised Egypt to let it build a military base in its territory or not. 

Doha is making up for its decline of influence in Sudan but drawing the attention of its rival, South Sudan. The region is becoming extremely dynamic especially after Sudan normalized its ties with Israel that further lessened the impact of Qatar in Khartoum. 

The Qatari defense minister met with Qaalwak on Sunday during his open visit to Doha. They reportedly discussed their common interests, development of friendship, and other similar objectives such as cooperation in the political and security fields. The last few years saw Doha breaking all its ties, on a formal level, with South Sudan. 

The reasons for delaying the diplomatic talks are unknown but Doha’s sudden interest in South Sudan can indirectly be an attempt to get close to Sudan after its direct attempts failed. Sudan’s sovereign council is fixated on moving away from Qatar as much as it can. This is happening because Sudan’s former ruler Bashir has ideological similarities with Qatari royals and now the current government wants to do away with it. 

Sudan received a major improvement in its process of normalizing things inside and outside the country as its normalized relations with Israel led the United States to remove its name from the ‘Sponsored terrorism list’. 

Sudanese officials termed this step as a major booster for its economic situation as well as called it a ‘fundamental change’. 

Experts say that Doha has already started meddling in South Sudan’s administrative process. Observers said that the country’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit and his deputy Reik Machar tried to come to terms with the expectations of each other's power but due to Doha’s infiltration efforts, the peacemaking efforts failed. 

But what Qatar is ignoring is the fact that the region it is trying to enter has different fundamentals and goals. The countries which surround the region will certainly not accept the Qatari presence and its ideals. Egypt too hopes that like Sudan, South Sudan will not rush to Qatar and change the dynamic in the region.