Post-Ramadan talks in Sudan will be “final discussions”, Kansteiner?

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2003 (KUNA) — The post-Ramadan talks between the ‏‏adversaries in Sudan will be the “final discussions” in the effort to achieve ‏‏a comprehensive peace settlement, Assistant Secretary of State for African ‏‏Affairs Walter Kansteiner predicted on Tuesday.‏

During Ramadan, the two sides will probably engage in some low-level talks, ‏with “the real final push” taking place in December, Kansteiner, who is near ‏‏the end of his tenure, said during a State Department briefing.‏
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“I am optimistic,” he said. “I think they can do it.”

Through the efforts of the United States and the Intergovernmental ‏‏Authority on Development, a working cease-fire and about 80 percent of a ‏‏comprehensive peace settlement have been achieved in Sudan in the last ‏‏two-and-a-half years.‏

“I think the security agreement that was reached a few weeks back was ‏‏actually the more difficult problem to get over. The notion of two armed ‏‏forces and an integrated armed force, it was complicated and it had all sorts ‏‏of not only security, but political implications and ramificaitons,” ‏‏Kansteiner said.

“And they did it. … They pulled it together, they made some ‏‏tough compromises, and they reached an agreement.”‏

The Sudan adversaries also are close to reaching an agreement on wealth ‏
‏sharing, he added.‏

“If you get the security and the army, and you get the money, the power is ‏‏going to flow from that,” Kansteiner said. “And so I think they are close to ‏‏that.”‏

“My advice would be do not let the momentum die,” he said. “You have got ‏‏good momentum, you have got the potential to reach the finish line. Stay the ‏‏course and get it done.”‏

Ambassador Cofer Black is “very involved” in the talks, Kansteiner noted.‏

The Africa Bureau at the State Department, and the Treasury Department, are ‏‏starting to look at the six different types of sanctions against Sudan, “each ‏‏with a slightly different threshold for when they get lifted,” he said. ‏

‏”Congress has mandated some; some are the executive branch. So we are going to ‏‏have to go through all of those and look at what the criteria are, why they ‏‏were placed on it, and what is necessary for them to be lifted.”