USA and France laud reconciliation between Deby, Bashir

February 9, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The French Foreign Ministry and the US Special Envoy to Sudan both applauded the meeting in Khartoum held between the leaders of Chad and Sudan, citing the positive implications this could have in the Darfur peace talks. President Omer Al Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby appear to have given each other reassurances not to support rebels based in each other’s territory.

“France welcomes the meeting, February 8 in Khartoum, between the president of the Republic of Chad, Idriss Déby Itno, and the president of the Republic of Sudan, Omar Hassan al Bashir,” said Bernard Valero, spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry at a press conference.

“This meeting between the two Heads of State in Sudan represents a significant step in the process of normalization engaged in between Ndjamena and Khartoum since the month of October 2009,” he said.

Five prior mediations and four agreements had failed since 2006 to normalize relations and bring Deby to Khartoum. This latest round of diplomacy began with a visit to Ndjamena in October 2009 by Bashir’s advisor Ghazi Salahadin.

Likewise, the US Special Envoy Scott Gration voiced his appreciation for the meeting. “We are extremely grateful for both the Sudanese government and the Chadian government to reach out to each other,” Gration said in a telephone interview with Agence France Presse from Washington.

The French Foreign Ministry called on the two parties to further this process by putting in place concrete measures to secure the border, laid out in an accord reached January 15.

The United States supports a mediation of the Darfur conflict in which Darfur rebels would gain some power at the national level. “Because the rebel groups can’t participate in the elections, there is going to have to be some sort of power-sharing agreement worked out, whether that’s in Doha (or) Darfur,” Gration told AFP. In additional remarks, however, he seemed to suggest that the rebels were not yet ready to agree to political power-sharing.

With regard to the Chadian armed opposition, both France and the United States are against involving them in any power-sharing agreement with Deby. “We are supporting any process that will put the Chadian rebels out of the equation and contribute to more lasting peace in Darfur … One of the options is demobilisation,” Gration said.

(ST)