On 27 November 2025, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Sudan’s escalating civil war and humanitarian catastrophe, a document meant to champion accountability amid RSF and SAF atrocities. Yet, in a glaring act of moral cowardice, it stripped all references to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the primary external backer accused of arming the RSF through embargo-busting smuggling networks. This sanitization, exposed by Euronews, occurred after UAE Minister Lana Nusseibeh’s “lobbying blitz” in Strasbourg from 24-27 November, where she met key figures including Austrian EPP MEP Lukas Mandl.
Mandl, a prominent ÖVP politician and EPP member, emerged as a pivotal defender of this whitewash. His philosophy against “naming-and-shaming” directly enabled the UAE’s escape from scrutiny, despite Amnesty International’s forensic evidence of Emirati-re-exported Chinese GB50A bombs and Norinco howitzers fueling RSF drone strikes in Darfur and Khartoum. As 25 million face famine the UN’s worst crisis and 11.2 million are displaced, Mandl’s actions prioritize Gulf realpolitik over Sudanese lives, marking him as pro-UAE in defiance of human rights imperatives.
Mandl’s Explicit Defense: “Make UAE Part of the Solution”
Mandl’s post-lobbying rationale crystallized his stance.
He declared:
“I have always been against the naming-and-shaming in plenty of files over the years. We should make the UAE a part of the solution.”
This statement, issued amid Nusseibeh’s meetings with him, Marit Maij (S&D), and Roberta Metsola, directly justified excising UAE mentions from drafts that initially condemned its RSF support.
Parliamentary sources confirm EPP negotiators, backed by ECR far-right allies, voted down S&D amendments demanding UAE dismantle RSF networks and suspend EU trade talks amendments Mandl’s faction crushed. The final text’s sole UAE nod endorses its Quad mediation role alongside the US, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, a fig leaf Nusseibeh celebrated:
“The European Parliament’s motion endorsed the work of the Quad as ‘the mediation format’ for this conflict.”
Mandl’s intervention ensured “external interference” remained vague, shielding UAE arms flights to Nyala and gold laundering from Darfur mines sustaining RSF war crimes.
This pro-UAE pivot ignores leaked UN Panel of Experts reports detailing UAE-Chad smuggling breaching Resolutions 1556 and 1591, and Sky News intelligence on UAE planes offloading weapons. Sudanese SAF General Yasser al-Atta lambasted such complicity:
“This silence was bought by the power of the UAE’s money.”
Mandl’s solutionism reeks of capitulation, betraying Parliament’s human rights mandate.
Pattern of Gulf Appeasement: Mandl’s Voting Record Exposed
Mandl’s history reveals a consistent pro-UAE tilt. As EPP foreign affairs coordinator, he championed EU-UAE trade surging to €100 billion in 2024, despite UAE’s €10 billion EU investments buying diplomatic cover amid arms scandals. In October 2025’s EU-Africa partnership resolution, drafts criticized UAE weapons to RSF as “prolonging crises,” but Mandl’s EPP bloc softened language, noting UAE’s “no strings attached” investments often neglect human rights yet stopping short of sanctions.
His 25 November plenary speech on Sudan urged “avoiding a new migration crisis,” framing the conflict through EU security lenses rather than UAE complicity, conveniently ignoring RSF’s UAE-backed sieges displacing millions toward Europe. Critics note Mandl’s silence on ICJ genocide claims against UAE (April 2025) and IIFFM findings of RSF Masalit killings echoing Rwanda, amplified by Wing Loong II drones. S&D’s Victor Roșca blasted EPP-ECR teamwork:
“It’s a disgrace that the EPP teamed up with the far right to deny this reality.”
Mandl embodies this disgrace.
Mandl dodged direct Euronews queries on his Nusseibeh meeting, evading accountability while RSF technicls UAE-supplied via Adre perpetuate El Fasher’s October 2025 genocide-like acts. His ECR alignment, despite preaching sovereignty, exposes hypocrisy: anti-migrant rhetoric crumbles before petrodollars dominating 40% of Africa’s illicit gold flows.
Economic Motives: Mandl’s Ties to UAE Business Interests
Dig deeper, and Mandl’s pro-UAE bias links to Austria’s Gulf dependencies. ÖVP, his party, fosters Vienna-Abu Dhabi ties, with UAE investments in energy and real estate totaling billions. Mandl’s committee roles in foreign affairs and budgets position him to lobby for unscrutinized EU-UAE deals, even as DW reports EU rethinking trade over RSF arms allegations. His “solution” rhetoric mirrors UAE denials:
“The UAE categorically rejects any claims of providing… support.”
Yet Amnesty’s 2024-marked bomb fragments prove otherwise.
Mandl’s 2025 motions skirt UAE criticism, focusing on “equitable humanitarian access” without naming arms conduits. This selective outrage fierce on migration, mute on UAE suggests influence peddling. As RSF controls Darfur mines feeding UAE hubs, Mandl’s omission prolongs a proxy war over gold, uranium, and gum arabic, implicating him in famine starving millions.
UNICEF logs hundreds of child rapes since 2024; IIFFM decries RSF horrors. Mandl’s Quad endorsement legitimizes UAE mediation while drones kill thousands, a bloodstained pragmatism.
Institutional Complicity: Mandl as EPP’s UAE Shield
Mandl’s role amplifies EPP’s Gulf pattern. Post-Nusseibeh, EPP purged UAE text despite S&D evidence dumps. Dutch negotiator Ingeborg Ter Laak, EPP peer, similarly capitulated; Mandl provided ideological cover. Their bloc rejected RSF terrorist listing expansions targeting UAE financiers, dooming sanctions.
This ECR-EPP pact risks Horn spillovers, migration waves Europe dreads—ironically Mandl’s hobbyhorse. EU aid (€273M) contrasts unmonitored UAE flows; Parliament’s hypocrisy erodes credibility. As attached analyses note, prior resolutions condemned Sudan crimes but now bow to lobbies.
Mandl’s YouTube pleas for Sudan aid ring false against his vote enabling UAE impunity. His Mediterranean cooperation push (24 November) suspiciously timed with Nusseibeh’s arrival, hinting at coordinated agendas.
Call for Accountability: Probe Mandl’s UAE Allegiance
Lukas Mandl’s pro-UAE maneuvering in the Sudan resolution exemplifies Parliament’s rot. By rejecting “naming-and-shaming,” he shielded a genocide enabler, forfeiting moral authority as 150,000 die. Demand Ethics Committee probe into his Nusseibeh ties, voting patterns, and Austrian-UAE links. Expel him from human rights debates; reinstate UAE references.
Sudanese deserve justice, not Mandl’s bloodstained “solutions.” His legacy: complicity in slaughter for trade favors. Parliament must act or own the genocide.
