Calls for send peace keeping forces to Sudan
Sudan, Politics, 10/10/2003

A joint US- British statement called on the secretary general of the Arab League to start drawing detailed plans on the ability of the UN to help in maintaining an expected peaceful settlement in Sudan.

Both London and Washington asked the UN Security Council to start preparations for a peace keeping force in Sudan to be sent in case an agreement is finalized that might end 20 years of civil war in Sudan.

Diplomats said that the statement which was formulated by Britain was met by reservations from France which wants the UN officials in this phase to be confined to make "preliminary consultations."

A French diplomat said that it is "premature that the UN security council discuss peace keeping in Sudan which still has weeks or months ahead before signing an agreement." Diplomats said that France wants first to see a peace keeping operation in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, where the French soldiers are helping achieve peace. But the French official denied that.

The Sudanese government and the southern rebels resumed peace talks in Kenya on Tuesday with the objective to end the war which claimed the life of almost 2 million persons. The two sides have reached an important agreement concerning security arrangements in a meeting in Kenya on September 25th.

Earlier, the Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir commended the US support for the peace talks between the government and the rebels. In a speech he delivered at the inauguration of works of the general national conference of the national conference party he said "we commend Washington's position concerning peace negotiations in Sudan and its care for it." Al- Bashir called for a proper bilateral relations with the US in its being the "most effective country in the world." He called on the US to reconsider its stances towards world peace issues so as to maintain a just consideration for the causes of the Arab, African and Islamic world.

Previous Stories:
  National conference party opened in Khartoum with Syrian participation   (10/9/2003)
  Difficult and complex tour Sudanese peace talks; Powell visits Kenya to encourage negotiations   (10/8/2003)
  Sudan, Uganda extends an agreement for security cooperation   (10/7/2003)

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