The Trump administration did not issue an entry visa to Sudan’s de-facto leader ahead of his visit to the United Nations General Assembly this week.
Reversing Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan’s visa rejection appears to hinge on his approval of a 90-day ceasefire proposal proposed by Massad Boulos, U.S. senior adviser for Arab and African Affairs, Reuters reported Tuesday morning.
The military commander is still scheduled to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, and diplomatic sources in Khartoum told The Sudan Tribune they expect his visa to arrive on Tuesday.
Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, called for “immediate intervention” in a letter addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.
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“Should this situation persist, it would effectively prevent the Head of State of a Member State of the United Nations from participating in person in the work of the General Assembly,” the letter reads.
In a statement to The Washington Sun, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the secretary-general is “deeply concerned” that Burhan was not issued a visa.
“The full participation of all delegations in the work of the Organization is essential to its proper functioning,” Dujarric wrote. “The Secretariat immediately raised the matter with the United States authorities and continues to engage with them.”
Sudan’s U.N. Permanent Mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Burhan became Sudan’s de-facto leader after successfully overthrowing President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and Burhan’s forces conducted a military coup in 2021 that further consolidated his power in the country.
President Donald Trump said in July 2025 that the U.S. would be “facilitating peace” in the country, which has been locked in civil war since April 2023. At the time, Burhan had criticized the proposal, pointing out that other international parties had failed to broker a successful ceasefire, and that the process must not “legitimize” the Rapid Support Forces, the government’s paramilitary group.
The U.S. sanctioned both Burhan and RSF leaders for “destabilizing Sudan” and “undermining the goal of a democratic transition” in January 2025.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott issued a statement on Tuesday asserting that neither Burhan’s SAF nor the RSF had “made serious commitments to an immediate truce.”
“In the meantime, we will seek to raise the cost of continued conflict on all belligerents and the networks which fuel the conflict,” Pigott said.
When asked directly about Burhan’s visa denial, a State Department spokesperson told The Sun: “As a general matter, we do not comment on Department actions with respect to specific visa cases.”
The U.S. has denied visas for certain picks for the U.N. delegations in the past due to an individual’s past involvement in security threats and other issues.
President Barack Obama’s administration denied a visa in 2014 for Iran’s pick for U.N. ambassador, Hamid Aboutalebi, citing his alleged involvement in the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis. The Trump administration also denied visas for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials this year and in 2025 — though Abbas addressed the assembly via video last year.
This story has been updated with comments from the State Department.
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