Sudan said on Sunday it hopes that Washington would put forward
a new idea regarding peacekeeping in the troubled Darfur region in
view of the largest African country's insistence on its refusal of
international peacekeeping forces.
Ali al-Sadig, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, voiced the hope
while commenting on a report that the United States was backing
away from its support for UN Security Council Resolution 1706
calling for deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur.
"We expect that US special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios will
bring something new when he comes back to Sudan, no matter whether
it is a plan or a roadmap or a program or a strategy under which
the two sides will reach an agreement in order to solve the
(peacekeeping) issue far away from Resolution 1706," the spokesman
said.
Last month, the US envoy paid a one-week visit to Sudan, the
first since he assumed office on Sept. 19.
"The recent visit of Natsios was aimed at listening to Sudan's
views on the nature of the Darfur crisis and conveying them to US
officials," al-Sadig said, adding that the purpose of the envoy's
next visit would be different.
The spokesman reiterated the government's rejection of the
resolution, saying "we have clarified to the United States and the
international community for many times that this resolution is
totally contradictory to the Abuja peace agreement on Darfur, and
it is impossible to implement it."
Natsios said on Saturday that Washington and other Western
governments were considering an "alternative way" to deal with
violence in Darfur.
It was the first public acknowledgement that the United States
was reviewing its position on the resolution it sponsored, which
demands deployment of some 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2006)
