US says Sudan has "weeks" to meet commitments or face sanctions
19/4/2007 16:52
The United States said yesterday that Sudan has weeks to take concrete
action to meet its obligations and avoid sanctions over the settlement of Darfur
crisis.
"(Sudanese) President Beshir does have some time" before facing
sanctions, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news
briefing.
"He has weeks in order to fully meet the commitments that he signed
on to," McCormack said of an agreement signed by Sudan last year to allow UN-led
troops into Darfur where bloody conflicts have claimed lives of tens of
thousands of people over the past four years.
US President George W. Bush
threatened earlier yesterday to tighten economic sanctions and impose new
punishments if Sudan fails to take concrete action to meet its obligations over
Darfur crisis.
Warning it is last chance for Sudan, Bush said: "If President
Bashir does not meet his obligations, the United States will act."
Sudan's
envoy to the United Nations announced Monday that the Sudanese government has
approved a UN plan to send attack helicopters to support the African Union (AU)
force in war-torn Darfur.
Prior to Sudan's announcement, Washington said it
had decided to delay unilateral new sanctions against Sudan over the Darfur
crisis to give the United Nations more time to negotiate with Khartoum.
US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged views with UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon Tuesday and again yesterday over the Darfur issue, McCormack
said.
The Bush administration planned to impose new, stricter sanctions on
the Sudanese government over its handling of the Darfur crisis. The sanctions
would include sanctions on 29 Sudanese companies, in addition to existing
sanctions on 130 other Sudanese firms.
The United Nations, the African Union
and the Sudanese government agreed in November 2006 on the three-phase support
plan which was also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan.
With the first phase of the plan, a light
support package already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in
principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phase of a UN
support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, known as "the heavy support
phase."
But the Sudanese government's opposition for the deployment of attack
helicopters in Darfur had blocked the scheduled implementation of the second
phase.
In war-torn Darfur, at least 200,000 people have reportedly been
killed since 2003 in ethnic and political conflict triggered by a
rebellion.
Xinhua
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