Sudan rejects effort to defuse peacekeeping row – Egypt

Nov 13, 2006 (CAIRO) — The Sudanese government has been rejecting Egyptian efforts to defuse the international crisis over sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, Egypt’s foreign minister said Monday.

But Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the world community also should show some flexibility, according to published reports.

Cairo is trying to break a diplomacy deadlock on how to bring peace to the troubled region of western Sudan and has been floating the idea of sending extra troops from Arab and Muslim countries to bolster the AU peacekeepers now in Darfur.

“The Sudanese government has turned down everything while the international community, backed by the Western powers is insisting on everything,” Aboul Gheit told the state-owned Rose El Youssef newspaper.

“The situation in Darfur is very sensitive and we are trying to defuse it,” he said.

Aboul Gheit said that among options being considered are putting the African troops under the U.N. command and changing their uniforms to have a U.N. emblem.

During a brief visit to Cairo Sunday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Paris would support Egypt’s suggestion to send extra troops from Arab and Muslim countries to help the AU peacekeepers now in Darfur.

This option, known as the “third way,” could break a three-month stalemate between Khartoum and the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council voted in August to send more than 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur to replace the ill-equipped and underfunded AU force, but Sudan has rejected this.

(AP)