WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is extending economic sanctions on Sudan for at least one year, the White House said Monday, ahead of the country’s January referendum on independence for the south.
In a letter sent to members of Congress, Obama informed US lawmakers that the sanctions on Khartoum, which were to have expired on Wednesday, would be extended, saying that the circumstances which led to their imposition some 13 years ago have "not been resolved."
Sudan’s actions and policies, Obama wrote, "are hostile to US interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."
"Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Sudan and maintain in force sanctions against Sudan to respond to this threat," Obama wrote in his letter to Congress.
The United States has banned virtually all trade with Sudan since 1997.
"The renewal of these tough sanctions comes at a time of great consequence for the people of Sudan and for the US-Sudan relationship," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said later Monday.
"Sudan is on the US sanctions list as an alleged supporter of Islamic militant groups and over the situation in its war-torn western region of Darfur," Vietor noted in a statement.
If Sudan’s government "acts to improve the situation on the ground and advance peace, we stand ready to work with Sudan to ensure its rightful place in the international community," he added.
Meanwhile, the US State Department announced Monday that US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, was in Khartoum in preparation for the vote and that he would soon depart for Addis Ababa for additional pre-referendum talks.
The retired general last month presented a bleak view of preparations for the referendum in Africa’s largest country.
The vote is to be held under a 2005 peace deal that put an end to Africa’s longest-running civil war between the north, which is mostly Arab-Muslim, and the predominantly Christian south.
On the same day voters in Abyei, a disputed oil region straddling the country’s north and south, will make the same decision for their district.
Northern and southern Sudanese leaders, however, have clashed over who is eligible to vote.
The Misseriya — Arab nomads who use land in Abyei for seasonal pasture — have threatened to derail the referendum if they are not granted the same voting rights as the Dinka Ngok, settled farmers seen as favorable to joining the south.
An estimated 1.5 million people died in Sudan’s long civil war between the north and south, perishing directly in conflict, or from disease and famine.
