Saudi prince to press Trump in meeting to intervene to end Sudan war, sources tell Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is set to press US President Donald Trump to personally intervene to help end the war in Sudan during talks in Washington today, five people familiar with the matter tell Reuters.

The sources — two Arab diplomats and three Western diplomats — say the Saudi crown prince believes Trump’s direct pressure is needed to break a logjam in talks to end more than two and a half years of war, pointing to his work to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza last month. Trump is expected to press the crown prince to normalize Saudi ties with Israel.

The conflict erupted in 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It has caused ethnically charged bloodletting, widespread destruction and mass displacement, drawing in foreign powers and threatening to split Sudan.

Both the RSF and the army have increasingly relied on drone strikes in recent months, leading to heavy civilian casualties.

In raising the issue with Trump, Saudi Arabia is seeking to appeal to the US president’s view of himself as a peacemaker, the sources say, with Trump having said repeatedly that he is seeking a Nobel Peace Prize for his work to address global conflicts, including by brokering a recent ceasefire in Gaza.

The Saudi government’s media office does not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Saudi plan to discuss Sudan with Trump was earlier reported by the Middle East Eye website.

The US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are members of a group formed to resolve the conflict and informally known as the Quad, though few tangible steps to ending the war have resulted.

For Saudi Arabia, a resolution to the conflict is linked to national security, with hundreds of kilometers of Sudanese coastline lying opposite the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.