Sudan expects US to change stance on Darfur

Nov 5, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan said on Sunday it hopes that Washington would put forward a new idea regarding peacekeeping in the troubled Darfur region in view of the largest African country’s insistence on its refusal of international peacekeeping forces.

Ali al-Sadig, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, voiced the hope while commenting on a report that the United States was backing away from its support for UN Security Council Resolution 1706 calling for deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

“We expect that U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios will bring something new when he comes back to Sudan, no matter whether it is a plan or a roadmap or a program or a strategy under which the two sides will reach an agreement in order to solve the (peacekeeping) issue far away from Resolution 1706,” the spokesman said.

Last month, the U.S. envoy paid a one-week visit to Sudan, the first since he assumed office on Sept. 19.

“The recent visit of Natsios was aimed at listening to Sudan’s views on the nature of the Darfur crisis and conveying them to U.S. officials,” al-Sadig said, adding that the purpose of the envoy’s next visit would be different.

The spokesman reiterated the government’s rejection of the resolution, saying “we have clarified to the United States and the international community for many times that this resolution is totally contradictory to the Abuja peace agreement on Darfur, and it is impossible to implement it.”

Natsios said on Saturday that Washington and other Western governments were considering an “alternative way” to deal with violence in Darfur.

It was the first public acknowledgement that the United States was reviewing its position on the resolution it sponsored, which demands deployment of some 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

(Xinhua)