Iran is backing Sudanese army forces with weapons and drones in a grueling civil war, according to a Bloomberg report, and Tehran along with Russia is seeking military bases in Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Iran has delivered arms to Sudanese army forces and provided them with dozens of drones, the news outlet reported, helping tip the conflict against militia opponents.
Russia, which has provided fuel and weapons components, along with Iran have both been in talks with Sudan's generals on building military bases astride the Red Sea, Bloomberg reported citing Sudanese and Western officials.
The support puts Tehran and Moscow on the winning side of the war, in contrast to their epochal setback in Syria where their mutual ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled this month by rebels they had been fighting for years.
Iran re-established diplomatic ties with Sudan in late 2023 after a seven-year deep freeze after Khartoum joined a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen against Tehran's allies in the armed Houthi movement.
Militias fighting the army felled a domestically crafted drone made with Iranian parts, Bloomberg reported citing Wim Zwijnenburg, a researcher at Dutch pro-peace organization PAX.
Zwijnenburg located an Iranian military drone on an air strip outside the capital earlier this year, Bloomberg wrote.
It cited the Conflict Observatory monitor saying at least seven flights operated by Qeshm Fars Air traveled between Tehran and Port Sudan in the first half of the year.
The firm, which is under US sanctions, is affiliated with the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
