Sudan's Bashir: 2005 Deal with U.S. Was Sabotaged

Aug. 14 (EIRNS)—PBS NewsHour carried a feature on Sudan yesterday evening, based on an interview done with President Omar al-Bashir by Time magazine in Khartoum last week.

In the interview (which notably lacked any hyping of the fake genocide charges against the President), Bashir revealed that after he had signed the U.S.-mediated Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the South in January 2005, after a protracted civil war, he had received a congratulatory phone call from then-President George Bush. As part of the peace agreement, the United States had agreed to normalize relations with Sudan, and to take it off the list of terrorist sympathizers. This would have allowed economic collaboration between Sudan and the U.S.A.

EIR's sources report that at the time of the signing of the CPA, which took place in Kenya, members of the Bush Administration had suggested a big event in Washington, to celebrate the signing.

But the celebration and the normalization of relations never happened. In the Time interview, Bashir said that this was because there was a force in the United States, more powerful than the President, which sabotaged this part of the agreement.

There are indications that there are elements in the two countries who are once again trying to improve bilateral relations. One indication from the U.S. side, is that PBS aired special envoy Gen. Scott Gration's attack, in a Senate hearing, on the U.S. sanctions against Sudan, which are an impediment to the successful implementation of the CPA.

For his part, Bashir hinted in the interview, that since he has been in power for 20 years, he may not run in the 2010 election. Such a move is seen as important to facilitate normalization between the United States and Sudan. Before the British imperial International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant against Bashir on March 4, 2009, President Bashir had indicated that he was considering stepping down, but after the ICC warrant was issued against him, his popularity in Sudan, all of Africa, and Southwest Asia, greatly increased. In the Time interview, Bashir dismissed the ICC as a political tool.

The fraudulent ICC arrest warrant was a deliberate move by the British, acting through George Soros and Lord Malloch Brown, to sabotage any attempt to improve relations between the U.S. and Sudan. Gration, together with forces in Sudan who are reaching out to the U.S., are trying to ensure that the CPA does not falter, and the country does not return to war.