The European Parliament has approved a resolution that calls for an end to the civil war in Sudan, but without any mention of the United Arab Emirates’ alleged role in the conflict.
According to parliamentary sources, the European People’s Party pushed to remove any reference to the UAE after lobbying by Emirati Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh, who was in Strasbourg when MEPs held their plenary session this week.
A leaked report by UN experts published in April 2025 claimed that sophisticated weapons were smuggled via the UAE and Chad into Darfur in a breach of an arms embargo.
Amnesty International claimed in a separate report published in May 2025 that ”Chinese weaponry, re-exported by the UAE and seized in Khartoum, was used in Darfur” in what would constitute a breach of the existing UN arms embargo.
The UAE denies the allegations.
Sudan’s civil war broke out on 15 April 2023 between two rival factions of the country’s military government, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Hemedti.
It is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 150,000 people killed so far and nearly 25 million affected by famine as a consequence of war.
In a statement, a UAE official told Euronews: “The United Arab Emirates categorically rejects any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war, and condemns atrocities committed by both Port Sudan Authority [SAF] and RSF.”
A disputed resolution
The European Parliament resolution, approved with a large cross-party majority, strongly condemns the ongoing conflict in Sudan, including the “grave and systematic violations of international humanitarian law and human rights committed by both the RSF and the SAF”.
It also deplores atrocities such as the combatants’ systematic use of sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage.
The resolution urges “all external actors to end the sale or supply of arms and other military equipment to all parties”, and condemns “all forms of external interference fuelling the war” – but does not name foreign countries involved in the conflict.
According to several sources familiar with the matter, the European People’s Party decided to excise any reference to the UAE, with conservatives and far-right groups backing the move.
Dutch MEP Ingeborg Ter Laak, the leading negotiator for EPP on the resolution, was approached by Euronews but did not answer the questions.
Some amendments tabled by leftist political groups did mention the UAE’s involvement, calling on the Emirati authorities to dismantle any networks linked to the RSF militia and on the European Commission to halt trade negotiations with the UAE.
But all of these amendments were rejected, with the EPP and right-wing groups voting against.
Austrian EPP MEP Lukas Mandl told Euronews, speaking for himself: “I have always been against the naming-and-shaming in plenty of files over the years. We should make the UAE a part of the solution.”
The only mention of the UAE present in the final text concerns a joint statement issued by the Quad group on ending the conflict. The Quad is a group of countries including the United States, the UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
High-level lobbying
Several parliamentary sources told Euronews that Emirati Minister Nusseibeh had personally lobbied MEPs in Strasbourg to influence the content of the resolution, together with her group of diplomats.
Euronews learnt that on 24 November, she met the Parliament’s President, Roberta Metsola – and that after this official appointment, she remained in Strasbourg until 27 November, the day of the vote on the resolution.
Nusseibeh then met other MEPs, including Mandl and the Dutch MEP Marit Maij, who was the negotiator for the Socialist and Democrats (S&D) group on the resolution.
The UAE government expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the vote.
“Her Excellency Lana Nusseibeh noted that the European Parliament’s motion endorsed the work of the Quad as ‘the mediation format’ for this conflict”, reads a statement.
The resolution also calls on EU member states to trigger the evaluation procedure to include the RSF on the EU’s restrictive “terrorist list”. This call is one of the few amendments to the original text that were approved despite the EPP’s opposition.
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