Sudan says open to improvements in US relations

June 8, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Presidential Advisor Ghazi Salahuddin Attabani has criticized a senior US diplomat while saying that the file on relations between Sudan and the United States of America remains open.

Despite pointing to positive signs in the relationship, Attabani did not shy away from condemning the US Representative in the UN Security Council, Susan Rice, for an unreported position she took against Sudan last Friday in New York. He said it deserves to be condemned because it is not in line with the call to correct the relationship with Sudan.

Rice, once considered a hard-line opponent of the Government of Sudan, has been a frequent target of such official statements. Though she previously had advocated harsh steps against the Sudanese ruling government, she has not done so since taking office. Her alleged criticism on Friday came on the day when the ICC prosecutor briefed the UNSC and there was a closed-door meeting.

In remarks at the UN on Friday about Darfur, actress Mia Farrow suggested that she believed Rice would not be “spineless,” a mildly insinuating comment given the actress’ criticism of President Obama.

Attabani, in his own take on US-Sudan relations, said “We are open to any new constructive ideas to improve bilateral relations, a necessary condition for giving them the right to contribute in other issues.”

He added, “We kept on telling them that Sudan could not imagine how Washington could contribute to solving the problems of Sudan while maintaining a hostile attitude towards Khartoum.”

This line of reasoning appears to have had some impact, as the US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration is reported at a briefing in April to have disclosed that he would be testing a policy of engagement and a search for friendship.

In an upcoming conference to be convened in Washington, D.C. in support of implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), delegations from the Sudan government and the SPLM will discuss their tenuous partnership. Attabani said that the invitation is not new and came from the feeling that there is a need for further efforts to implement the peace agreement.

Among the participants at the conference will be Sudan’s intelligence chief, Salah Abdullah Gosh, according to Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, an SPLM official and head of the Government of Southern Sudan’s Mission in Washington, D.C.

Gosh is a long-time partner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and host recently in Khartoum of two US senators. US State Department officials could not today be reached to confirm the attendance of the intelligence chief at the conference which they are organizing.

Attabani stressed that the conference has no new mechanisms or new contact group but is just a conference to support the peace agreement, drawing on the CPA itself. He pointed out that the international community pledged in Naivasha to support peace in Sudan besides the development in southern Sudan, saying, “We are asking them to renew their support for the deal.”

Sudan remains open-minded to any new and constructive ideas for improvement of the relations, explained Attabani, pointing out that it is an important precondition for them to be able to contribute in the other issues.

He concluded that the conference would not create new mechanisms but simply would give a boost to the CPA implementation, especially as there are many issues such as disarmament, if not implemented could put the agreement into jeopardy.

(ST)