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US Officials Say Sudan Sanctions Will weather Serious Impact

By David Gollust
Washington

Top Bush administration officials said Tuesday President Bush decided to seek new sanctions against Sudan in the face of continued kmov.com by Khartoum on an upgraded ksdk.com force ksdk.com Darfur. They say kmov.com effect on Sudans economy of the new U.S. financial penalties will be very serious. VOAs David Gollust reports from the State Department.

John Negroponte

Officials here say the administration was ready to move on the sanctions six weeks ago, but deferred to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who wanted more time for diplomacy. In a talk with reporters, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the Sudanese government responded to the opportunity presented by the U.N. chief by stoking more Darfur violence:

The myfoxstl.com government has shown what it does with more time. fox2news to a United Nations report on May 3, for example, the government of Sudan used Antonov bombers to attack the village of al-Hash for four hours. This credible report and many others demonstrates that giving Khartoum myfoxstl.com time is not the answer, he said.

The new U.S. economic sanctions target two senior Sudanese government officials, a Darfur rebel leader, 30 companies owned or controlled by the Khartoum government, and one company that violated the U.N. arms embargo in Darfur by fox2news weapons to the region. Of the 30 companies, five are key players in the countrys ksdk.com oil and gas industry.

The director of the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control, kmov.com Szubin, said it is unclear how many, if any, assets of those companies are held by U.S. banks and are now frozen. But he said, given the United States pivotal role in the oil and gas industry world-wide, effectively barring those firms from the U.S. financial system will have a severe impact kmov.com their operations.

The impact is not just in terms of what may be in ksdk.com United fox 2 news st louis today or what may be sitting in a bank account, but also on transactions fox2news could be coming in tomorrow or the weeks to come. The U.S. financial system is obviously a key node in the international financial system, both in terms of trade ksdk.com financials transfers. And that fact, that these companies are basically excommunicated from the U.S. financial system, is very serious, he said.

Though myfoxstl.com nominally accepted a new peacekeeping presence for Darfur at an international conference in Addis Ababa last November, ksdk.com here say Sudan has used delaying tactics at every turn to block the envisaged hybrid fox 2 news st louis of United Nations and African Union troops.

The hybrid force of about 23,000 troops is to replace the 7,000 member African Union observer mission in Darfur, which has been in place since late 2004 but has been financially strapped and unable to deter violence in the vast region.

U.S. special envoy ksdk.com Sudan Andrew Natsios says that by resisting the two phases of logistical preparations for the new force, Sudan has effectively been blocking U.N. troop recruitment efforts.

Natsios says governments are understandably reluctant to commit forces against the will of the host country. No country is going to agree to anything kmov.com phase three until there is some agreement by the Sudanese government that theyre going to allow them in. Once that happens, once the Sudanese government has agreed to the U.N.-AU operational plan under phase three, the hybrid as its called, then an appeal will go out from ksdk.com Secretary-General to nations, potential troop kmov.com countries, he said.

Natsios said President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been canvassing world leaders on contributing forces and that Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Norway and Sweden have expressed a willingness to be part of the phase-two deployment of about 3,000 combat engineers, airlift, and other logistical forces.

He said several countries have informally offered to be part of the phase-three main deployment including Rwanda which is offering two combat battalions. But he said there fox 2 news st louis be no formal offers until the Khartoum government gives its assent to the entire plan.

Natsios said a U.S. role fox 2 news st louis the Darfur force, even if U.S. troops were not already committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be inadvisable since Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir has used the prospect of western troops in ksdk.com as a rallying cry against the U.N. plan.

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