A Sudanese diplomat told the UN General Assembly's legal committee that Washington breached the 1947 Headquarters Agreement by refusing army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan a visa for September's General Assembly.
The army-led authorities in Port Sudan have asked the United Nations to take legal and institutional measures against the United States over its refusal to grant army chief and Sovereignty Council chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan a visa to attend the UN General Assembly in September, The Sudan Times reported on 7 November.
The request was made on Friday 6 November by Sudanese diplomat Ammar Mohammed Mahmoud at a meeting of the General Assembly's Sixth (Legal) Committee, which was considering the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country. According to the report and to Sudan Events, he said Washington had failed to meet its obligations under the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which requires the host country not to impede travel to the UN by representatives of member states.
Mahmoud said UN Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed concern about the refusal and urged the US to fulfil its responsibilities as host, but that those efforts had not secured Burhan's attendance. The delegation asked for the incident to be formally recorded, for the relevant diplomatic correspondence to be circulated to member states and for measures to prevent similar cases. No decision on the request has been announced, and CERHA found no public US response to the statement.
Context
Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salim led Sudan's delegation at September's high-level week in Burhan's place. Washington has not publicly explained the refusal in detail. The United States sanctioned Burhan in January 2025, citing the army's conduct of the war, including attacks on civilians, and its rejection of peace talks; it has also sanctioned RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and in January 2025 determined that the RSF had committed genocide in Darfur.
Host-country disputes over visas are periodically raised at the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, but the committee has no power to compel a host state. The row comes as US-led efforts to secure a humanitarian truce continue and as Port Sudan presses other forums, including the Community of Sahel-Saharan States meeting in Tripoli this weekend, to back its position against the RSF and the Tasis administration. The Tasis-aligned Government of Peace and Unity, which is not recognised by the UN, has no seat at the General Assembly.
Image: Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in April 2025. Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.