Sudan MPs dismiss threat of sanctions over Darfur

NAIROBI, Sept 9 (Reuters) – A delegation of Sudanese parliamentarians dismissed on Thursday the threat of oil sanctions contained in a U.N. resolution submitted by the United States to pressure the government over the conflict in Darfur.

The United States submitted the draft resolution on Wednesday, threatening oil sanctions against Sudan if Khartoum did not stop abuses in the Darfur region of western Sudan and accept a large African Union monitoring force.

The deputy speaker of the Sudanese parliament, Angelo Beda, said he doubted the United States would succeed in convincing the United Nations to adopt the resolution it had submitted.

“We don’t think that they will make it, we have our supporters in the United Nations,” Beda told a news conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The U.S. measure says Khartoum had “failed fully to comply with its commitments” to rein in the Arab Janjaweed militia, accused of killing, raping and uprooting African villagers in Darfur.

Beda is part of a Sudanese government delegation touring African capitals to present the government’s case in the Darfur conflict, which the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.