At the following map you can see how important Sudan was for Iran during the previous decades. Iran and Hezbollah used Sudan as an entrance for West Africa in order to attack Niger, Nigeria, Algeria and Cameroon. Through Eritrea and Somalia they were attacking Kenya and Ethiopia.
Map Sudan’s Usefulness for Iran
From the mid-seventies Egypt left the Soviets and became an ally of the United States and Saudi Arabia, and has also singed a peach treaty with Israel (1979). Only for one year Egypt became an enemy of Saudi Arabia, when the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power with the support of Turkey, Qatar and Iran (2012-2013).
When the Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi became president of Egypt in 2012 he received Erdogan in Egypt as a real Sultan, and he invited the Iranian President. It was the first visit of an Iranian President to Egypt since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. But other than this brief period of the Muslim Brotherhood governance Egypt has been an enemy of Iran and a Saudi ally.
Moreover Qadafi had formed an alliance with Chad, and together they supported separatist rebel groups in South Sudan, which is where the Sudanese oil is located. See Gatestone Institute “Chad: Gaddafi's Best Ally”, July 2011.
See also “Libya, Chad and Sudan – An Ambiguous Triangle?”.
It is no coincidence that it was in 2011 that the special forces of Hezbollah and Sudan, with the blessings of Iran, and the special forces of Qatar, with the blessings of Turkey, entered Libya, and it was in 2011 that South Sudan gained its independence. It was the same war.
Qaddafi’s Libya was producing 1.5 million barrels of oil per day before the Arab Spring, Sudan was producing 400 thousand barrels per day, while Chad was producing 100 thousand barrels, with the prospect to increase its production to 250.000 barrels.
After the Arab Spring and the independence of South Sudan both the Libyan and Sudanese oil productions collapsed.
Image Libyan Oil Production
http://energy-cg.com/SmallPicsLinks_ECG/crude_oil_production.png
Image Sudanese Oil Production
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/images/sudan-oil-production2012.jpg
At the following map you can see with blue the Sudanese oil fields and with red the oil pipeline that was exporting the Sudanese oil to the Red Sea through the Arab part of Sudan, very close to the Saudi oil pipeline.
Map Oil Fields and Pipeline of Sudan
http://www.energy-pedia.com/news/sudan/new-149899
Map Pipelines of the Red Sea
From the following map you can see that Sudan was for Iran and Hezbollah an entrance to West Africa, which allowed them to bypass South Sudan, Ethiopia and Chad.
Map Sudan as a Corridor to West Africa
In West Africa Iran targets the oil of Nigeria, the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline (Nigeria-Niger-Algeria), and the rich uranium fields of Niger which supply the French production of nuclear energy.
Niger and Namibia are among the top 5 producers of uranium in the world.
Uranium Production by Country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_uranium_production
Iran had also very strong connections to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab in Somalia, but also in Eritrea. Eritrea is a very corrupt country which is for hire, but recently Eritrea said it is aligned with Saudi Arabia. See “Is the Reconciliation Between Turkey and Israel Viable”?
https://iakal.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/is-the-reconciliation-between-turkey-and-israel-viable/
Kenya, a country south of Sudan, is another country with problematic relations with Iran, because the Chinese want to use Kenya as an export hub, in order to export the resources of Africa to the Indian Ocean. China also wants to export the oil of South Sudan from Kenya now that there is the Sudan-South Sudan war, and that brings Iran and Sudan together against Kenya.
Map
I must also say that Sudan is useful for Iran for one more reason. Sudan and Iran have a common politico-economic system. Both countries are Islamic societies and they have socialist economic models. However Sudan is a Sunni Islamic “Democracy” while Iran is a Shia Islamic “Democracy”.
Therefore Iran could use Sudan to set foot in Sunni terrorist organization of Africa and Asia, because 80-85% of the Muslim population adheres to Sunni Islam. The Sudanese propaganda sounds more familiar to the population of the Sunni countries. Moreover Iran and Sudan used to jointly attack the Saudi King, and Sudan was presenting itself as the model of an Islamic socialist country. Normally we do not use the words Islamists and socialists together, but I use the word “socialist” to make clear what the economic model of Sudan and Iran is.
In recent years Turkey became also a predator hunting the Saudi King, because the Turkish President wanted to unite Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran, under the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to send the natural gas of Iran and Qatar to Turkey. See “Assessing the Sultan”.
https://iakal.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/assessing-the-sultan/
I want to mention some relevant articles before moving further.
At the following article of the Africa Journalism, you can read that Sudan supports terrorism organizations all over Africa, and soon Iran’s weapons could even reach Boko Haram in Nigeria. Note that Boko Haram was supported by Al-Qaeda, but after the Sunni-Shia war in Syria Boko Haram aligned itself with ISIS. See “The Sudanese link: from Seleka in Central Africa Republic to Boko Haram in Nigeria”, May 2014.
At the following Reuters article you can read that the Organization of Islamic Council, which is a council of all the Muslim countries, officially accused Iran of meddling in the internal affairs of other Muslim countries and for consistently supporting terrorism. See “Muslim nations accuse Iran of supporting terrorism: summit communiqué”, April 2016.
At the following BBC article you can read that Iran smuggles gun in Nigeria in order to arm terrorist groups, and Nigeria threatened to report Iran at the United Stations. See “Nigeria to question Iranian over arms seized in Lagos”, November 2010.
At the following Reuters article you can read that the United Nations accuse Iran for supplying arms to Al-Shabaab in Somalia. See “Iran denies shipping arms to Islamist militants in Somalia”, February 2013.
After the wild Sunni-Shia war in Syria, Al-Qaeda and ISIS started competing for influence over Al-Shabaab. See the Telegraph “How al-Qaeda and Islamic State are competing for al-Shabaab in Somalia”, January 2016.
At the following BBC article you can read that Gambia severed diplomatic relations with Iran because Iran was smuggling weapons in Gambia. See BBC “Gambia cuts ties with Iran and orders diplomats to go”, November 2010.
At the following Al-Jazeera article you can read that Senegal severed diplomatic ties with Iran because Iran was smuggling weapons in Senegal. See “Senegal severs ties with Iran”, February 2011.
At the following CNN article you can read that Kenya many times in the past has accused Iran for supporting terrorists that have been arrested in Kenya. See “Kenyan government links 2 terrorism suspects to Iran”, November 2015.
At the following Guardian article you can read that the public prosecutor of Argentina was ready to present to the Argentinean Congress evidence that the Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner was involved in hiding evidence of Iranian involvement in Argentinean terrorism, but a few hours before going to the Congress the Public Prosecutor committed “suicide”. See “Alberto Nisman: Argentina prosecutor's death closer to being solved”, February 2016.
At the following article from the Nigerian Naij, one of the largest newspapers of Nigeria, you can read that the secret services of Nigeria blamed Iran for training terrorists in Nigeria. See “Iran-Linked Terror Suspect’s Family Faults SSS”.
I would also like to provide a map with the ethnic groups of Sudan. You can see the Arab part of the country on the north, and the Christian and other non-Arab part at the south of the country. The southern part of the country, the non-Arab part, is the rich in oil part of the country.
Map Sudan – Ethnic Groups
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Sudan_Religion_sm.jpg
That’s a very basic description of the divisions of the Sudanese population. There are hundreds of tribes in the country. Most African people did not have nations until the Westerners went there. African people were very primitive. They would hunt and eat each other, or sell the captured tribes as slaves.
I must also mention the issue of the South Sudan-Kenya oil pipeline promoted by China, which hurts the Arabs of Sudan who want the oil of South Sudan to be exported by the Arab northern part of the country. There was also the prospect of connecting Uganda’s oil on the South Sudan-Kenya pipeline. See Quartz “Kenya and Uganda are building the world’s longest heated oil pipeline”, August 2015.
Map South Sudan-Uganda-Kenya Pipelines
Therefore Kenya was a common enemy for Iran and Sudan, because she would export the resources of Africa to the Indian Ocean (Iran) and she would export the oil of Sudan and Uganda, which could be exported by Sudan instead. Tanzania could also be used for this purpose and that’s why Al-Shabaab attacks Tanzania too.
The following map is the map of Al-Qaeda, and it includes Kenya and Tanzania, Sudan and Uganda, the oil and natural gas of Algeria, Libya and Nigeria, the Trans-Saharan Pipeline, and the uranium of Niger.
Map of Al-Qaeda
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-qaida.htm
