A Truce Neither Side Wants: Washington's Ninety Days Founder on a Withdrawal Both Refuse
The RSF will accept a ceasefire that freezes its conquests; the army will accept one that reverses them. The gap is structural, and both use the talks as cover to keep fighting.
The US plan authored by envoy Massad Boulos proposes a ninety-day humanitarian truce, then a political process. The RSF agreed to an unconditional three-month truce for aid under UN supervision — but refused even a partial pullback from North Darfur and North Kordofan. Burhan's Security and Defence Council countered on July 12, demanding full RSF withdrawal from every city seized since 2023 as a precondition Washington says guts an immediate ceasefire. Reporting notes Saudi-influenced revisions to a text opposed on the ground by the RSF's chief external patron, the UAE.
Assessment: Both sides are using the process as cover — the RSF to lock in territory, the SAF to refuse legitimizing it. The gap between an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal-first is structural, not procedural, so a signed deal remains unlikely. The Gulf subtext — Saudi fingerprints on the text, Emirati backing for the militia — is the quiet contest underneath.