When Diplomacy Becomes Leverage

Reports today that the United States has not yet issued General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan a visa to attend the UN General Assembly raise a much larger question.

Reuters reports that the visa may be linked to Burhan accepting a proposed 90-day ceasefire. The US has not confirmed that linkage, while the UN says it has raised the matter with Washington.

If confirmed, this would be significant.

For more than three years, Sudan has heard statements, appeals and calls for restraint while the war has continued and external support has helped sustain it.

Diplomacy is not only about statements.

It can also be about leverage.

If diplomatic access can be used to influence the parties to the conflict, then we should also ask what other forms of leverage are available — over arms, financing, political support and the external networks that continue to sustain the war.

Sudan does not lack international engagement.

The question is whether that engagement is being used strategically enough to change the incentives sustaining the conflict.

The tools exist. The question is whether the political will exists to use them.