U.S.’s Rice calls Darfur a “brewing” Sudanese disaster
By Alex Keto
SAVANNAH, Ga., June 07, 2004 (Dow Jones) — The U.N. Security Council continues to hammer out a new resolution on Iraq and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday a final version of the text could be ready “in a couple of days.”
“We are still in the stages of finalizing a number of elements of the resolution. But I think it’s fair to say that the spirit moving forward is very good, that people are working very hard at it, and that there is a general sense that this is going in a very positive direction and should reach conclusion very soon,” Rice said.
“It’s a little hard to ever predict precisely when there will be a vote but it looks as if it’s moving to the point that you could expect something in the next couple of days or so,” she added.
Rice made the comments during a briefing to the international press corps at the Group of Eight industrialized nations summit that begins Tuesday.
Rice’s comments follow weekend meetings between U.S. and French officials on the resolution. President George W. Bush was in France on Saturday and Sunday to discuss the resolution and other matters with French President Jacques Chirac.
On Saturday, Chirac said he believed progress was being made on the resolution, but declined to predict when a final version could be ready.
Rice played down expectations the G-8 summit will produce broad new agreements by the major industrialized nations to help Iraq rebuild. Instead, Rice said the developed nations worldwide have already pledged up to $33 billion to help rebuild Iraq.
Rice said that once the Iraq economy gets moving, she would expect the private sector to take the lead role in the reconstruction of Iraq.
One key issue that remains unresolved and needs to be addressed, according to Rice, is Iraq’s mountain of debts that were run up during the rule of former president Saddam Hussein. The U.S. has received pledges from Iraq’s creditors that the debts must be cut, but little concrete action has been taken.
The G-8 itself is split on the issue of Iraq, with the U.S., U.K., Japan, and Italy providing either troops or money, or both, to Iraq, while France, Germany, Canada and Russia have done virtually nothing.
Clearly, this situation irks U.S. officials, but there may not be much the U.S. can do about it.
Referring back to Bush’s trip to Italy and France, where the president highlighted both the liberation of Rome and the Normandy landings in World War II, Rice said the point of the president’s trip was to underline how much the West can accomplish when it is united. However, there was little evidence over the weekend that Bush made much progress in bridging U.S. differences with France.
On other matters, Rice said the G-8 welcomes recent statements by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
She said the G-8 will discuss both oil prices and the global economy during the sessions when the G-8 leaders meet with the leaders from the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the key member of OPEC, isn’t attending the G-8 summit. In recent days, OPEC has promised to increase the supply of oil on the market.
Rice also delivered a warning to Sudan over its handling of “brewing disaster” in the Darfur region. Local militias, backed by government forces, have been engaged in ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region.
Rice said the U.S. is closely watching events in Darfur.