Sudan’s FM back home from US visit

Sept 14, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol returned home Thursday from the United States where he had apparently failed to convince Washington on the problems of Darfur and normalization of relations between the two countries.

During his four-day visit, Lam Akol held two meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on bilateral relations, the latest developments in Darfur as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1706 which calls for the sending of international peacekeepers to Darfur.

“Lam Akol explained to Rice Sudan’s position on the necessity of supporting African troops in Darfur until peace and security are realized in the region with the help of all parties concerned, ” Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim told reporters.

He reiterated Sudan’s rejection of Washington’s condition for the normalization of bilateral relations that Khartoum accepts the deployment of international forces in Darfur to replace ill- equipped African troops monitoring a fragile ceasefire in the region.

Ibrahim urged the United States to lift sanctions imposed on Sudan since the 1990s, saying the sanctions were unjust after the government signed peace agreements with rebel movements in south Sudan and Darfur.

However, the spokesman did not mention the content of a message from Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to U.S. President George W. Bush delivered by Lam Akol to Rice.

Sudanese media reported that el-Bashir reiterated in the message his country’s refusal of deploying international peacekeeping force in Darfur and its keenness to solve the problem through dialogue instead of confrontation.

The message came as a reply to a personal message sent by Bush to persuade Khartoum to accept the international force in Darfur.

“We got the substance of the Sudanese reply and it was unsatisfactory,” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Wednesday.

McCormack said that Akol, during his meetings with Rice, had tried to focus on improving relations with the United States rather than the UN force deployment in Darfur.

“(Rice) made clear those relations certainly would not get better absent their support for this international force. In fact it was likely those relations would get worse,” said McCormack.

The UN Security Council passed resolution 1706 last month on the deployment of more than 20,000 international peacekeepers in Darfur. But the resolution has been refused by the Sudanese government.

(Xinhua)