U.S. offers Sudan quicker route off terror list

[Kamaavi]

 

WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 7, 2010 7:21pm EST

 

Reuters - The United States will drop Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as early as July 2011 if Khartoum ensures two key referendums take place on schedule in January and the results are respected, senior U.S. officials said Sunday.

 

President Barack Obama made the offer through Senator John Kerry, who recently told Sudan's leaders the United States was ready to "decouple" the issue of Darfur from Khartoum's terror designation to win cooperation on the January polls, the officials said.

 

"We like to consider this a pay-for-performance operation," one official said.

 

The U.S. officials, speaking on background about Kerry's mission to the region, emphasized that separate U.S. sanctions imposed on Sudan over Darfur would remain until Khartoum makes progress in resolving the humanitarian situation in its troubled western region.

 

But they also held out hope that the offer to end the isolation imposed on Khartoum by its inclusion on the U.S. state terror list would persuade the Sudanese government to begin making the necessary concessions to allow the January votes to proceed as scheduled.

 

Sudan's two parallel referendums on January 9 could see southern Sudan secede to become Africa's newest state and decide whether the disputed oil-rich territory of Abyei joins the north or the south.

 

 

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[Jacaylbaro]

Very interesting ...

 

Now let's see how Sudan gov will react to this. They're already in a critical position.

[Kamaavi]

Despite the offer, Sudan is unmoved. Fight for Abyie remains fervent.

[Kamaavi]

WASHINGTON — The United States suggested for the first time Tuesday that it might not be possible to organize a referendum January 9 in the Sudanese region of Abyei, and suggested north and south weigh an "alternative."

 

"Discussions continue on Abyei, and we will continue to hold the parties to their obligation to a referendum on Abyei... unless they arrive at an alternative that is mutually agreeable to both sides," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

 

The Sudanese town is on the faultline between north and south. It is is slowing reemerging from the ashes of its destruction two years ago but aid groups are bracing for more violence as a vote on its future looms.

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