UN Security Council considering move to lift sanctions

The UN Security Council is to consider a proposal to lift international sanctions imposed on Sudan. The sanctions were imposed in 1996 after Khartoum refused to hand over suspects in the 1995 assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa. A proposal circulated among Security Council members by Mali was due to be discussed on Wednesday, but diplomats said the United States forced a postponement, according to the Associated Press (AP). There has been growing support for a lifting of the sanctions, with the non-aligned countries, the Arab League and the African Group and Arab Group in the UN all in favour. The United States remains opposed, but would have to exercise its veto to stop the proposal going through the Security Council. Sudan, meanwhile, has been seeking to improve relations with the United States, which still regards it as a terrorist state. Relations between the two countries deteriorated further when Washington bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical plant in August 1998. Washington said the plant was making chemical weapons and was linked to Osama bin Laden, the man the United States says was behind the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania the same year. AFP quoted Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha as saying on Tuesday that he hoped his talks with visiting American presidential envoy Harry Johnston would lead to “reshaping a new US position that will help the US administration play a more positive and effective role in achieving peace in Sudan”. He said he had told Johnston of Sudan’s willingness to establish good relations with the United States. However, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismael, speaking after a meeting with Johnston on Monday, called on the United States to end what he called its partiality towards the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).