US delays imposing sanctions on Sudan

April 11, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States has decided to hold off for several weeks on imposing new sanctions against Sudan over its handling of Darfur to give the United Nations more time to negotiate with Khartoum, said the U.S. special envoy to Sudan on Wednesday.

Special envoy Andrew Natsios told lawmakers that U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon had asked the United States at the end of last month to wait for two to four weeks to enable him to negotiate a U.N./African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur, which Sudan has so far refused.

“As a courtesy to the (U.N.) Secretary General, we delayed,” said Natsios. The United States was poised at the end of last month to impose the stricter sanctions.

In addition, a U.S. Congressional delegation was visiting Sudan at the time and also requested a hold-off on sanctions.

Among sanctions the United States had planned to impose against Khartoum were the addition of 29 Sudanese companies to a current U.S. sanctions list of about 130 firms.

In addition, Washington planned to further limit dollar transactions from Sudanese companies and to slap travel and banking bans on three individuals, including a rebel leader who was seen as being obstructionist.

Another strategy was to strengthen the enforcement of sanctions against Sudan, using similar tools to those employed against Iran and North Korea.

“We believe it will have a substantial effect,” he said of the planned new sanctions, pointing to those imposed on Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs as examples.

(Reuters)