US policy on Sudan to be formally released Monday: reports

October 16 2009 (WASHINGTON) — The US administration will reveal its long awaited outcome comprehensive policy review on Sudan that appears to put a higher dosage of engagement than the previous administration, according to multiple US media reports.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, and the administration’s special Sudan envoy, Scott Gration, are to unveil the policy Monday at a news conference at the State Department, the officials said.

Washington has been vigorously debating on the correct amount of mix between carrots and sticks to keep the country’s North-South peace agreement from unraveling as well as how to bring peace to Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

The US president Barack Obama’s special envoy to Sudan Retired General Scott Gration appeared at odds with many in the administration by downplaying the term genocide to describe what is happening in Darfur and publicly calling for lifting sanctions imposed on Khartoum and removing it from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

In a few times the White House and State Department have had to clean up after Gration’s public remarks that have angered Sudan advocates and some US lawmakers.

Internally there were reports of disputes between Gration and Rice who has long been a proponent of tough action against Khartoum.

The Washington Post said that the new policy that calls for a campaign of “pressure and incentives” to pressure Khartoum into pursuing peace in the troubled Darfur region, settling disputes with the autonomous government in southern Sudan and providing the United States greater cooperation in stemming international terrorism.

In an interview with the New York Times on Friday, Gration said that Washington would set strict time lines for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to fulfill the conditions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

“To advance peace and security in Sudan, we must engage with allies and with those with whom we disagree,” said a statement of the policy that was obtained by The New York Times.

General Gration summed up the administration’s position by citing what he described as an old African proverb.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you have to go with someone,” Gration said.

“We want to go far,” he said, “and to do that we are going to have to go with Khartoum.”

The US envoy said the administration’s new approach was also intended to prevent Sudan, which once provided refuge to Osama bin Laden, from again serving as a terrorist haven.

Sudan has cooperated with U.S. counterterrorism officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but officials say they are eager to see Khartoum take steps to cut support for Palestinian militants groups, including Hamas, and stop African terrorist elements from using the country as a haven.

The US administration also agreed that all its officials maintain that genocide “is taking place” in Darfur.

Also under the new policy, Gration will not be authorized to negotiate directly with Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Darfur; Sudan will not be removed from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism in the immediate future.

The exact nature of rewards and penalties are not expected to be disclosed, officials said.

The policy would give Sudan a path to better relations with Washington if it began to deal with U.S. concerns.

As a U.S.-designated supporter of terrorism, Sudan is generally denied foreign assistance and development aid.

A separate executive order, signed in 1997 by then- President Bill Clinton, prohibits an array of U.S. trade with Sudan, including the import of any Sudanese goods and the export to the country of anything except food, clothing and medicine. It also prohibits the extension of U.S. credit or loans to the Sudanese government.

The Darfur Accountability Act, passed in 2006, requires the administration to get congressional approval and certify that Sudan is taking certain steps before those sanctions under the executive order can be lifted.

(ST)