Khartoum vows to impose peace, commends Libyan- Egyptian initiative

The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed "to impose" peace in Sudan, while his advisor Sayed Qotub al-Mahdi commended the Libyan- Egyptian initiative which seemed to have been canceled by the Mashakos negotiations.

The Sudanese news agency quoted Bashir as saying upon inaugurating a factory for productions of tanks and military vehicles as well as agricultural equipment in the "Jiad" industrial area, south East of Khartoum, that "peace is coming, despite the rebels, the traitors and the hirelings."

Meantime, the political advisor for the Sudanese presidency Sayed al-Mahdi, currently visiting Libya said that his country's government set conditions to resume the negotiations with the rebels of the Sudan People Liberation Army including a pan cease fire and the withdrawal of the rebels from the areas they had occupied in the south.

He indicated that the Sudanese government was surprised by the "retreat of the rebels and their violation of the cease fire, and provoking certain issues already agreed upon like implementing the Islamic Sharia and the ruling system." He stressed Sudan's welcome to the joint Libyan- Egyptian initiative concerning Sudan, noting that " this initiative is interested in the political situation in Sudan as a whole, while IGAD's initiative is interested in the situation in southern Sudan."

Meantime, the Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Othman Ismael starts today a visit to Washington in order to hold talks with American officials on the peace process in Sudan before he will head to New York to take part in the works of the UN General Assembly.