Sudan rejects US initiative on Darfur

August 19, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie has said his country’s rejects any attempt by the United States to broker a peace deal between the government and Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

On 14 July, Sudan signed a peace deal with a single Darfur rebel group known as Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) in order to end the long-running conflict in the western region. The agreement, however, left a three-month window for the inclusion of other rebel groups which refused to sign.

JEM, a prominent rebel group, rejected the agreement and insisted that it that needs to be re-opened for discussion whereas Khartoum refused and said that deal is final.

The US administration this month started a series of contacts with the Sudanese parties and international partners to consider the way forward after the signing of the peace agreement.

US senior Adviser for Darfur Dane Smith met on 11 August with JEM’s representatives in London and suggested to them to participate in a Darfur Forum his administration intends to hold in Washington next September.

But Nafie, quoted by Sudan’s official news agency SUNA on Friday, denied knowledge of any efforts by Washington, saying that his country rejects any new initiative.

Separately, the ruling party official appeared unhappy with Washington’s failure to keep its promise of lifting Sudan’s name from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.

“We never believed any promise from America,” he said.

The United States on Thursday kept Sudan’s name on its list of states that sponsor terrorism though Washington acknowledged that Khartoum “remained a cooperative partner in global counterterrorism efforts against al-Qa’ida (AQ) in 2010”

Sudan was expecting its name to be removed after the US promised so if Khartoum allowed South Sudan’s secession to take place peacefully.

(ST)