Sudan refuses terming Abuja talks as “failure”

KHARTOUM, Dec 22, 2004 (Xinhua) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail denied here Wednesday allegations describing the recent round of peace talks in Abuja between his government and the Darfur rebels as a “failure”.

“All factions of the dispute have renewed their commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” Ismail told reporters at the Khartoum airport upon arrival back from a visit in Niger.

Negotiators of the Sudanese government and the Darfur rebels agreed on Tuesday to suspend the third round of talks between them until January.

Chief of the African Union (AU) and Nigerian President Olusagun Obasanjo said “the final stages of this round of peace talks would form a good ground for solving the Darfur crisis in spite of its complexity at the beginning.”

Ismail pointed out that one of the obstacles of the talks “is that the rebels had not come with full authorization to push forward the talks.”

“The Darfur rebels were not keen to finalize the talks either because they have been waiting for the results of the peace negotiations in Naivasha or they have been expecting a UN Security Council’s session for more foreign intervention on the Darfur issue,” added the minister.

In his comment on reports that the United States has invited UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit Darfur again, Ismail said Annan had visited Darfur before and “is aware of the situation there.”

“Any way, Darfur is open to whoever wants to visit and if the United States has a specific strategy to apply through the Security Council, we have our own to deal with the council,” he said.

Ismail noted that the international community should prepare for removing all obstacles to enable the AU to play its role on the Darfur crisis.