US sets early May as new deadline for Sudan to allow UN troops

By Wasil Ali

April 19, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The US administration will give Khartoum until the first week of May for Sudan to implement accords to let UN troops into Darfur.

According to a press release by the Save Darfur Coalition the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios said that May is the new deadline for Sudan before tougher sanctions are imposed.

The US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said earlier that Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir “has weeks in order to fully meet the commitments that he signed on to”.

The US said in November of last year that it will resort to an unspecified “Plan B” if the Sudanese government does not agree by Jan. 1. However the deadline has passed with no action taken against the Sudanese government.

Natsios told the committee on foreign relations at the US senate last week that the US held off sanctions temporarily “as a courtesy to the U.N. secretary-general” to try diplomacy with Khartoum.

(ST)