Sudan’s de facto leader has received an Iranian ambassador and sent his own to Tehran, cementing a rapprochement after an eight-year rupture. Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday received Hassan Shah Hosseini, the new Iranian ambassador, in Port Sudan and sent Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh as the African country’s ambassador to Tehran.

Sudan and Iran agreed last October to resume diplomatic relations, as the army-aligned government scrambled for allies during its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudanese government has been loyal to the army in its 15-month fight against the RSF. The Red Sea city of Port Sudan has become Sudan’s de facto seat of government since Khartoum became wracked by fighting.

This is “the beginning of a new phase in the course of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Hussein al-Amin said. Sudan broke off relations with Iran in 2016 in solidarity with Saudi Arabia after the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran was attacked following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia cleric. Several Saudi allies in the region also cut ties with Iran at the time.

In March 2023, however, Riyadh and Tehran announced the restoration of their relations following an agreement brokered by China. Iran has since moved to cement or restore relations with neighboring Arab countries. In February, the United States voiced concern at reported arms shipments by Washington’s foe Iran to Sudan’s military. Since Sudan’s war began in April 2023, a number of foreign powers have supported rival forces. The country has also drawn closer to Russia, which, experts say, has reconsidered its previous relationship with the RSF, with which it had links through the mercenary Wagner Group.