Peter Lord as Special Envoy to Sudan, Replacing Tom Perriello
Moatinoon
Reports have surfaced indicating that the Trump administration has chosen Ambassador Peter Lord as the interim Special Envoy to Sudan, replacing Tom Perriello.
Peter Lord is regarded as a seasoned diplomat who previously served as Deputy to Molly Phee, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East African Affairs, Sudan, and South Sudan. He has visited Sudan multiple times, most recently in February 2023, two months before the outbreak of the war, where he met with representatives of political forces that had signed the Framework Agreement.
In April 2022, Lord and the acting head of the U.S. mission in Khartoum, along with other members of the American embassy team, hosted an iftar for women selling peanuts in the Al-Amarat area on 15th Street.
Ambassador Elizabeth Stephaniekin, the newly appointed U.S. representative to the United Nations, stated shortly after assuming her duties following President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week that the United States is committed to prioritizing Sudan under the Trump administration. She emphasized the importance of the Special Envoy position to Sudan and urged U.S. allies to take action to end the conflict.
Meanwhile, Cameron Hudson, Senior Fellow at the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that President Donald Trump is uniquely positioned to end the war in Sudan due to his significant influence over Khartoum and regional powers.
In an article published in Foreign Policy the day before yesterday, Hudson noted that Africa does not typically rank high on Trump’s foreign policy agenda. However, Sudan has emerged as an exception, where U.S. engagement is critical and Washington’s influence under Trump could be the decisive missing factor in ending the current war in Sudan.
Hudson explained that, unlike most African countries, Trump has a history with Sudan. His first administration initiated a complex process to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in an effort to set the country on a path toward debt relief and economic recovery. This removal was formalized in December 2020 and involved obtaining certification from the intelligence community, negotiating a 335 million settlement agreement for victims of American "terrorist" attacks, and securing congressional support. It also paved the way for normalized relations between Washington and Khartoum, including the first exchange of ambassadors in 25 years.
