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TEHRAN, Jul 27 -The United States has reportedly halted plans to sanction Sudan’s military forces for mass killing of protesters, in a purported bid to influence the power-sharing deal between the country’s Saudi-backed junta and civilian leaders.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -The US Departments of State and Treasury were going to craft a sanctions strategy on Sudan, targeting the African country's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo -- also known as Hemedti -- but the White House pulled the plan over fears that the move may upset the flimsy peace deal between the civilian leaders and the so-called Transitional Military Council (TMC), current and former US officials said Friday, according to a report by the Foreign Policy journal.
Under the power-sharing deal negotiated earlier this month between the TMC and an alliance of pro-democracy civilian groups called the Forces of Freedom and Change, an 11-member body will govern the country for just over three years.
It will consist of five military members, five civilian ones, and an 11th civilian chosen by both sides. A military general will head the council for the first 21 months, and then it will transition to a civilian leader for 18 months. Negotiations on other aspects of the transition are still continuing.
According to the report, the “internal deliberations” reflect the “diplomatic tightrope” Washington is walking as it attempts to “shepherd Sudan’s transition to democracy” after 30 years under the despotic rule of former president Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in an apparent military coup back in April.
US officials and experts, the report adds, “are torn on the policy options” of imposing sanctions on Sudan’s military figures for widespread atrocities -- including allegations of murder, rape, and torture during a violent confrontation with protesters on June 3 – and the need to avoid measures that could harm the tenuous power-sharing accord.
Following the bloody violence in June, the White House National Security Council convened a series of meetings to discuss Washington’s response to the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protester by Sudan’s security forces, the officials noted.
The RSF launched the brutal attacks against demonstrations and hospitals in capital Khartoum, killing more than 100 people so far.
Voicing concerns over instability in the East African country, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair Tibor Nagy said in a press briefing last month that “there are some possible scenarios which frankly would be very negative,” adding “We could end up with the type of chaos that exists in Libya or Somalia, and the last thing Egypt wants is another Libya on its southern border.”
The report then cites one current and one former official as saying that the State Department’s special envoy on Sudan, Donald Booth, was among the leading advocates of halting sanctions against Sudan’s junta, over fears that the move may derail the “peace talks.”
Meanwhile, a State Department spokesperson denied the allegations altogether, saying that Washington "continues to work to support the establishment of a civilian-led government that enjoys the broad support of the Sudanese people.”
According to the journal, the Trump administration has also faced congressional pressure to pursue sanctions against Khartoum.
Last month, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Congressman Eliot Engel Called on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to sanction Hemedti and the RSF for “gross human-rights violations” to “send a powerful message to the Sudanese people.”
Hemedti remains a powerful figure in Sudan’s military council that assumed control of the country after Bashir was ousted. Hemedti and the RSF have been implicated in serious war crimes, including in Darfur. The RSF has also deployed ground troops to fight on behalf of the Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen.
Egypt and oil-rich Persian Gulf regimes, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, regard Sudan as a strategically important country in the region. They have ramped up their political and financial involvement in the country since the coup against Bashir.
Source:presstv
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