Egypt and the UAE, seen as the key external players in Sudan's devastating war, disagreed on the role the warring parties -- Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces -- would play in a potential peace process.
Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.
The meeting -- the latest attempt to chart a path to peace talks -- was cancelled over "an unresolved disagreement" about the final joint statement, an Arab diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity.
"The UAE inserted a last-minute change to include no presence for both the army and the RSF in the future transitional process," the source added, calling the stipulation "totally unacceptable".
Egypt's foreign minister Badr Abdelatty was set to take part, his spokesman had told AFP.
Cairo, historically the Sudanese army's closest ally, has repeatedly emphasised the "importance of preserving Sudan's national institutions".
Another source close to the negotiations said "the US circulated a draft that everybody accepted, including the UAE, but Egypt did not accept the part that said that the transitional period should not be controlled by any of the warring parties."
The US then "decided to postpone the meeting to a later date," they told AFP.
The United States under Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia have previously sponsored several unsuccessful rounds of negotiations to end the bloody conflict, which experts say has already spilled over into the surrounding region.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of outside forces fueling the war in Sudan, which possesses coveted gold deposits -- exports from which are nearly all funnelled to the UAE -- as well as huge amounts of arable land and hundreds of kilometres of Red Sea coastline.
Cairo and Abu Dhabi are close regional allies, but find themselves on opposite sides of the Sudan war.
The UAE has been widely accused of arming the RSF, in violation of a UN arms embargo on Sudan's western Darfur region.
Abu Dhabi has issued repeated denials, despite widespread reports from UN experts, diplomats, US politicians and international organisations.
The war has visited mass atrocities on civilians and torn the country apart. The army is currently in control of the centre, north and east while the RSF seeks to consolidate its hold on the west and south, and recently declared a parallel government in areas it controls.
Deadly clashes between Uganda, South Sudan forces
Juba (AFP) July 29, 2025 -
Uganda's army, which has been supporting South Sudan's ruling faction against its internal rivals, has clashed violently with local armed forces in the country, officials said on Tuesday.
Uganda has been a long-time military supporter of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and announced in March that it had deployed special forces to the country.
It was backing Kiir as he moved against his long-time rival, Riek Machar, and militias from Machar's ethnic Nuer community.
But the clashes on Monday appeared to be between the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and a local detachment of government troops in Central Equatoria State, near their shared border.
"Elements from the armies of two sisterly Republics of South Sudan and Uganda exchanged fires" in Kajo Keji County, the South Sudan army said in a statement.
It said the chief of its defence staff had spoken with his Ugandan counterpart to ensure hostilities ceased and launch an investigation into how the clashes began.
A statement by Kajo Keji County representatives said the "attack by the UPDF... has resulted in loss of lives and injuries from both sides".
The representatives said thousands were forced to flee their homes and were "sheltering in bushes, religious premises and local schools".
Uganda sent troops to support Kiir when civil war broke out in the country in 2013, just two years after it had gained independence from Sudan.
The war between Kiir and Machar lasted five years and left some 400,000 dead before a power-sharing agreement was reached in 2018.
That deal has been all but buried by Kiir's recent moves to sideline Machar, raising fears of renewed ethnic conflict.
The Ugandan army has been accused of using chemical weapons, namely barrel bombs containing a flammable liquid that killed civilians, against Nuer militias in South Sudan's northeast.
Uganda has denied the accusations.
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