Iran’s Newest Proxy: Sudan

Iran, having just had two of its major proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, seriously degraded, is setting its sights on a new, “consolation prize” proxy to use as an additional base of operations: Sudan.

Iran has, for a while, been trying to establish a port in Sudan’s major coastal city, Port Sudan. Iran’s strategy of supporting and infiltrating other countries and terrorist groups — as it has done in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Venezuela and Yemen — appears as yet another extension of its strategy of moving into territories with weak or unstable governments to expand its influence throughout the Middle East, to create new fronts for its campaign to destroy Israel and bring down the world order led by the West.

A major port and foothold in Sudan will enable Iran to accomplish two of its goals: to continue encircling Israel in a “ring of fire” by opening yet another front from which to attack the small Jewish nation from the southwest, and to further control all international shipping in the Red Sea. Currently, most ships, unable to buy insurance thanks to the massive disruption created by Iran’s proxy, the Houthis, are forced to go around the entire continent of Africa rather than speed through the Suez Canal. This detour costs every vessel up to an additional $800,000 for each trip. Commercial traffic in the Red Sea is consequently down by nearly 80%.

Recently, Iran’s wealthy private militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), formed a close relationship with General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). For more than a year, it has been engaged in fighting the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti. In 2019, the two generals had worked together to stage a coup, but 17 months ago, started fighting each other. Last week, the SAF began trying to retake the Sudanese capital city, Khartoum.

In August 2024, peace talks were called, aimed at ending the civil war between the SAF and he RSF. US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello wrote on X that delegations from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), African Union, United Nations and Egypt convened in Geneva for talks facilitated by the United States. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield hailed the fresh round of negotiations as an important step to end the bloody war.

The Sudanese Armed Forces, led Al-Burhan, however, although invited, was not represented. “We will not go to Geneva,” Al-Burhan told reporters in Port Sudan at the time; “we will fight for 100 years.”

Al-Burhan nevertheless showed up at the UN recently, asking for talks. Why did he not respect the offer from the US and the international community when they gave him that opportunity in Geneva? Might the incident suggest a lack of candor?

In the meantime, the IRGC, while working to establish a naval base in Port Sudan, has been providing SAF with drones and advanced military equipment. This support positions Sudan as a possible new base of operations for Iran against Israel. Iran’s strategy of embedding itself within weak or unstable nations, such as Sudan, seems a clear attempt to duplicate its proliferation of proxy states, expand its reach, and create new fronts in its global against the West.

The threat, however, does not stop at Israel: Iran’s ultimate target is clearly the United States. “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” are aspirations the Iranian regime has been advocating since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and vowed, “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.” [1]

Openly stating its ambition to dominate the Middle East — and to drive US forces out of the region presumably to make it easier to do so – Iran, for 40 years, through force and intimidation, has been seeking to dominate its neighbors in the Middle East, not just Israel, but also Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran’s militias and proxies have been firing, as well, on American assets in the region, more than 160 times just in the last year, with virtually no response from the US. Iran has also been extending its reach into Africa, especially with the increasing collaboration of two powerful allies: China and Russia.

Iran’s influence is not presently confined to any region. Iran has, for instance, been “exporting the revolution” to the Western Hemisphere, particularly, as mentioned, Venezuela, an ideal base from which to harass the “Big Satan,” especially when Iran will have nuclear weapons, which are reportedly close to being “taken public.”

China and Russia, ironically, appear to be using Iran as their proxy, a “pacesetter,” in a larger geopolitical race, distracting the United States while they advance their own strategic goals. Iran, through its proxy Hezbollah, has also been actively expanding its presence across Africa, creating potential threats to Western personnel and interests as part of a strategy of horizontal escalation.

While Iran’s focus remains largely on the Middle East, its financial networks in Africa, backed by Hezbollah’s extensive involvement in illicit activities — such as money laundering, smuggling, and fundraising from the Lebanese diaspora — position it as a latent threat. Hezbollah’s foothold in countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo provides it and Iran with the financial resources to disrupt U.S. interests in Africa. In the event of future tensions, Tehran could leverage these assets to escalate conflicts by targeting Western interests on the continent.

This new, potential land-grab by Iran, in collaboration with Russia and China, poses yet another serious security threat not only to Israel, but also to the entire region and the United States. It is hoped that the US government, and whoever wins the November election, will give this emerging flashpoint urgent attention.

Peter Hoekstra is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute. He was US Ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration. He also served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Second District of Michigan and served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee.

[1] February 11, 1979 (according to Dilip Hiro in The Longest War p.32) p.108 from Excerpts from Speeches and Messages of Imam Khomeini on the Unity of the Muslims.