Sudan’s government welcomes ‘new attitude’ from the U.S.

When President Obama called the slaughter of innocents in any part of the world a “stain on our collective conscience,” one of the examples he cited was the violence unleashed in Darfur by the Muslim-led government of Sudan.

Yet instead of bristling over the mention of Darfur, Sudan’s government greeted Obama’s speech as a sign that relations with the United States can improve.

“We welcome the new attitude of the Obama administration,” Mustafa Ismail, a senior presidential advisor, said in a telephone interview. “He only mentioned Darfur generally because he wanted to leave a space for the active bilateral dialogue between the U.S. and Sudan.”

Sudan’s government has been accused of brutally repressing two rebellions, one by Christian and animist rebels in the south, and more recently by insurgents in the western region of Darfur.

The United States imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions, steps that many Sudanese attributed to a religious bias.

But Ismail said the Obama administration’s approach holds promise of a new way forward. Despite a recent International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir for his role in the Darfur crackdown, U.S. officials have launched a low-profile effort to improve ties with the regime. That improved mood was evident in the coverage of Obama’s speech by a pro-government newspaper in Khartoum. “A thousand-mile journey,” the paper noted, “starts with one step.”

-- Edmund Sanders