بوش يدعو في خطاب غدا الى فرض عقوبات على السودان!!!

President George W. Bush is set to call for new United Nations sanctions on Sudan, in an attempt to increase pressure on Khartoum, diplomats have told the Financial Times.

They added that Mr Bush’s call for a new UN Security Council resolution over the conflict in Darfur – due to be made on Wednesday in a speech remembering the Holocaust – will be backed by Tony Blair, UK prime minister. A text is likely to be circulated in the Security Council this week.

Sudan said on Monday that it would allow 3,000 UN peacekeepers to be dispatched to Darfur, but Washington and London are deeply suspicious of the government of president Omar al-Bashir, which they accuse of supporting the Janjaweed militia in Darfur.

John Negroponte, deputy US secretary of state, on Tuesday said the UN contingent was not enough and that the number of peacekeepers in Darfur must be increased from 5,000 at present to “between 17,000 and 20,000”.

Mr Blair said that unless Khartoum fully complied with the UN, the Security Council had to be prepared “to pass a strong resolution with sanctions in respect to the Sudanese government”.

Although US and UK ­officials acknowledge the likelihood of Chinese resistance to a new resolution to deepen sanctions on Sudan, they argue that if the measure wins support from the African members of the Security Council – Congo, Ghana and South Africa – it will be difficult for Beijing to use its veto.

The new resolution would seek to extend an embargo on arms sales to Darfur to other parts of the country, add new names to a list of individuals affected by visa bans and asset freezes and improve monitoring of flights in the Darfur region.

“Bashir needs to know that he can’t use his airforce with impunity to support the Janjaweed,” said a British official, indicating that it would be more difficult to win support for a broader measure to impose a no-fly zone on Darfur – although Mr Blair has indicated his support for such a move in the past.

Another key step would be to follow the example of the UN’s handling of the dossier on Iran’s nuclear programme, which the Security Council reviews every two months.

The British official said the goal was for the “Security Council to return to this [Darfur] regularly and to consider even more measures if things do not improve.”

Darfur has been the scene of conflict since the outbreak of a rebellion in 2003 that has led to the displacement of close to 2m people and tens of thousands of deaths.