This maps shows how Iranian weaponry is making it to one of Africa's most violent hotspots
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Darth Sidious
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/maps-shows-iranian-weaponry-making-210344693.html
A South Sudanese man holds a gun in his village. The Sudan-South Sudan border region is one of Africa's most persistent trouble-spots.
The Sudanese and South Sudanese governments allegedly support rebel movements that operate on the other country's territory. The thorny and potentially explosive question of sovereignty over the oil-rich enclave of Abyei's still hasn't been resolved, even after South Sudan's peaceful succession from Sudan in 2011.
Militias run rampant on either side of a disputed border. War is ongoing in South Korodfan and Blue Nile, and the conflict in nearby Darfur displaced over 457,000 people last year — and this is in addition to the devastating civil war in South Sudan that kicked off in late 2013.
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has tracked developments in one of the world's most remote and complex conflict zones through intensive, on-the-ground reporting on the flow of armaments. In a May, 2014 report, SAS traced the origins of arms and ammunition used by the region's constellation of armed groups.
Much of the weaponry that feeds this mess is Chinese and Sudanese in origin — which is not surprising, considering China's economic and political interests in an oil-rich part of the world and Sudan's region-leading domestic arms industry.
But there's plenty of Iranian weaponry making its way around the conflict area as well, as the map below demonstrates. (SAF refers to the Sudanese Armed Forces. The SPLM-N is an anti-government militia in Sudan whose arsenal largely consists of arms looted from the SAF. The Olony, Athor, and Yau Yau groups are all anti-government militias operating in South Sudan, and there's evidence that they've received assistance from Sudan as well.)
Most of these weapons were likely in the possession of the regime in Khartoum at some point. As the Small Arms Survey report notes, " Iran’s role in Sudan’s defence industry is primarily ideological." They are both regimes founded by revolutionary Islamist governments. And they're both countries under international sanctions, which gives them added incentive to cooperate.
Iran also reaps a strategic dividend from their ties with Sudan. Their warships have docked at Sudan's Red Sea ports, and the relationship is a rare instance of Iran building close ties with a Sunni Muslim government, or with a state outside of the Middle East.
Recently, Qassem Suleimani, the head of external operations for Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, explained Iran's expansionist ambitions and may even have hinted at its relationship with Sudan's Islamist regime:
General Soleimani: we can see the signs of exporting our revolution to Bahrain,Iraq, Syria, Yemen and north of Africa.
— Rohollah Faghihi (@FaghihiRohollah) February 12, 2015
In return for being an Iranina client, the ever-embattled regime in Khartoum receives crucial Iranian help in setting up and operating its domestic arms capacity. And it gets plenty of weapons, too. The Small Arms Survey sites UN sources that report Iran was responsible for "13 percent  of Khartoum’s self-reported arms imports from 2001 to 2012."
The SAS report details which of these weapons have made their way to the war-torn border area. Iranian light machine guns, RPG launchers, mortar tubes, and landmines — which are curiously based on Israeli designs according to SAS, meaning that at least some of Iran's arsenal is reverse-engineered from weapons built by one of Tehran's chief geopolitical foes — have been found in the region.Â
And Iran may not have wanted international monitors to know that it was providing certain types of weaponry to Sudan. "Unlike Iranian RPG launchers found in other conflict arenas, these launchers usually do not bear any markings, rendering the origin difficult to ascertain," the report states. "Since these features are distinctly Iranian, however, the launchers are probably Iranian-produced."
Raheb Homavandi/Reuters Members of the revolutionary guard attend the anniversary ceremony of Iran's Islamic Revolution at the Khomeini shrine in the Behesht Zahra cemetery, south of Tehran, February 1, 2012.
Then there are the unmanned aerial vehicles. Sudan and Iran signed a military cooperation agreement in 2007 that allowed Khartoum to purchase an unspecified number of Iranian Ababil-3 drones. There's evidence that 3 to 5 of these drones were used for surveillance in Darfur — a place where the Sudanese regime has committed grave human rights abuses — starting in 2008. Anti-regime fighters also shot down a Sudanese drone with a registration sticker from the "Iran Aviation Manufacturing Ind Co." in March of 2014, according to the SAS report.
It's probable that a military with the fairly limited capabilities of Sudan's required Iranian training and expertise in order to operate its Ababil-3s. Even if it's less of a factor than in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, Iranian influence in Sudan is still helping to drive a hugely destructive network of conflicts.
A South Sudanese man holds a gun in his village. The Sudan-South Sudan border region is one of Africa's most persistent trouble-spots.
The Sudanese and South Sudanese governments allegedly support rebel movements that operate on the other country's territory. The thorny and potentially explosive question of sovereignty over the oil-rich enclave of Abyei's still hasn't been resolved, even after South Sudan's peaceful succession from Sudan in 2011.
Militias run rampant on either side of a disputed border. War is ongoing in South Korodfan and Blue Nile, and the conflict in nearby Darfur displaced over 457,000 people last year — and this is in addition to the devastating civil war in South Sudan that kicked off in late 2013.
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has tracked developments in one of the world's most remote and complex conflict zones through intensive, on-the-ground reporting on the flow of armaments. In a May, 2014 report, SAS traced the origins of arms and ammunition used by the region's constellation of armed groups.
Much of the weaponry that feeds this mess is Chinese and Sudanese in origin — which is not surprising, considering China's economic and political interests in an oil-rich part of the world and Sudan's region-leading domestic arms industry.
But there's plenty of Iranian weaponry making its way around the conflict area as well, as the map below demonstrates. (SAF refers to the Sudanese Armed Forces. The SPLM-N is an anti-government militia in Sudan whose arsenal largely consists of arms looted from the SAF. The Olony, Athor, and Yau Yau groups are all anti-government militias operating in South Sudan, and there's evidence that they've received assistance from Sudan as well.)
Most of these weapons were likely in the possession of the regime in Khartoum at some point. As the Small Arms Survey report notes, " Iran’s role in Sudan’s defence industry is primarily ideological." They are both regimes founded by revolutionary Islamist governments. And they're both countries under international sanctions, which gives them added incentive to cooperate.
Iran also reaps a strategic dividend from their ties with Sudan. Their warships have docked at Sudan's Red Sea ports, and the relationship is a rare instance of Iran building close ties with a Sunni Muslim government, or with a state outside of the Middle East.
Recently, Qassem Suleimani, the head of external operations for Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, explained Iran's expansionist ambitions and may even have hinted at its relationship with Sudan's Islamist regime:
General Soleimani: we can see the signs of exporting our revolution to Bahrain,Iraq, Syria, Yemen and north of Africa.
— Rohollah Faghihi (@FaghihiRohollah) February 12, 2015
In return for being an Iranina client, the ever-embattled regime in Khartoum receives crucial Iranian help in setting up and operating its domestic arms capacity. And it gets plenty of weapons, too. The Small Arms Survey sites UN sources that report Iran was responsible for "13 percent  of Khartoum’s self-reported arms imports from 2001 to 2012."
The SAS report details which of these weapons have made their way to the war-torn border area. Iranian light machine guns, RPG launchers, mortar tubes, and landmines — which are curiously based on Israeli designs according to SAS, meaning that at least some of Iran's arsenal is reverse-engineered from weapons built by one of Tehran's chief geopolitical foes — have been found in the region.Â
And Iran may not have wanted international monitors to know that it was providing certain types of weaponry to Sudan. "Unlike Iranian RPG launchers found in other conflict arenas, these launchers usually do not bear any markings, rendering the origin difficult to ascertain," the report states. "Since these features are distinctly Iranian, however, the launchers are probably Iranian-produced."
Raheb Homavandi/Reuters Members of the revolutionary guard attend the anniversary ceremony of Iran's Islamic Revolution at the Khomeini shrine in the Behesht Zahra cemetery, south of Tehran, February 1, 2012.
Then there are the unmanned aerial vehicles. Sudan and Iran signed a military cooperation agreement in 2007 that allowed Khartoum to purchase an unspecified number of Iranian Ababil-3 drones. There's evidence that 3 to 5 of these drones were used for surveillance in Darfur — a place where the Sudanese regime has committed grave human rights abuses — starting in 2008. Anti-regime fighters also shot down a Sudanese drone with a registration sticker from the "Iran Aviation Manufacturing Ind Co." in March of 2014, according to the SAS report.
It's probable that a military with the fairly limited capabilities of Sudan's required Iranian training and expertise in order to operate its Ababil-3s. Even if it's less of a factor than in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, Iranian influence in Sudan is still helping to drive a hugely destructive network of conflicts.
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also interesting because while the US and Russia get fussed at for arms sales, China typically doesn't... and some of what goes on in the Sudan is locally-produced arms the Chinese sell machinery/plans for (to MIC in Sudan, if i recall correctly)Darth Sidious wrote: »Much of the weaponry that feeds this mess is Chinese and Sudanese in origin — which is not surprising, considering China's economic and political interests in an oil-rich part of the world and Sudan's region-leading domestic arms industry. -
Absolutely
I'm not an expert of weapons exports or restrictions to conflict zones or to africa but have read on several occasions how cheap weapons from China are flooding parts of the world and Africa being a top destination for them
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinas-arms-exports-flooding-sub-saharan-africa/2012/08/25/16267b68-e7f1-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html
August 25, 2012
UNITED NATIONS — China’s arms exports have surged over the past decade, flooding sub-Saharan Africa with a new source of cheap assault rifles and ammunition and exposing Beijing to international scrutiny as its lethal wares wind up in conflict zones in violation of U.N. sanctions.
Weapons from China have surfaced in a string of U.N. investigations in war zones stretching from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ivory Coast, Somalia and Sudan. China is by no means alone in supplying the arms that help fuel African conflicts, and there is no proof that China or its arms exporters have intentionally violated U.N. embargoes in any of those countries.
But China has stood apart from other major arms exporters, including Russia, for its assertive challenge to U.N. authority, routinely refusing to cooperate with U.N. arms experts and flexing its diplomatic muscle to protect its allies and curtail investigations that may shed light on its own secretive arms industry.
The stance highlights the tensions between China’s responsibilities as a global power and its interests in exploiting new markets. It has also raised questions about whether Chinese diplomats have a grip on the reach of the country’s influence in the arms industry beyond its borders.
Beijing has responded to the disclosures not by enforcing regulations at home but by using its clout within the Security Council to claw back the powers of independent U.N. arms investigators. Those efforts have helped undercut the independence of U.N. panels that track arms trading with Iran and North Korea.
“This is really a case of unbridled capitalism, and I think the Chinese government is not even always aware of what these companies are doing,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been tracking Iran’s and North Korea’s procurement of nuclear technology from Chinese companies. When the Chinese are “confronted with evidence,” Albright said, “they respond very defensively and legalistically.”
China has blocked the release of embarrassing U.N. revelations of illicit arms transfers, stopped the reappointment of an arms expert who uncovered Chinese weapons and sought to restrict the budget to fund investigations. It has also consistently refused to allow U.N. investigators to trace the origin of Chinese weapons discovered in war zones.
The country’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this report, but its representatives have repeatedly denied accusations that the country is violating sanctions.
More broadly, China has made clear that it has a philosophical aversion to sanctions, which were imposed on Beijing by the European Union following the Tiananmen Square events in 1989, and that it believes most major political disputes are better addressed through diplomatic talks.
Council diplomats say China has gone along with the proliferation of U.N. sanctions panels in order to maintain a cooperative relationship with the West, particularly the United States. Today, the United Nations enforces arms embargoes against 13 countries or groups, including the Taliban, al-Qaeda and seven African countries.
But China’s willingness to play along has been tested over the past decade as it has transformed itself from the world’s largest importer of arms to a major producer, with domestic production exploding by 95 percent from 2002 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2011, making it the sixth-largest arms exporter in the world.
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not always aware of what the companies are doing... but they respond defensively?Darth Sidious wrote: »“This is really a case of unbridled capitalism, and I think the Chinese government is not even always aware of what these companies are doing,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been tracking Iran’s and North Korea’s procurement of nuclear technology from Chinese companies. When the Chinese are “confronted with evidence,” Albright said, “they respond very defensively and legalistically.”
would really like to see someone make this defense of a Western nation with a straight face and see how successful it is
