KHARTOUM, SUDAN -- — The American presidential race and a genocide investigation by the International Criminal Court are propelling Sudanese officials to renew efforts to strike a deal with the U.S. aimed at normalizing relations and improving stability in the volatile Darfur region.
Many in the Khartoum government fear frosty U.S.-Sudanese relations could worsen under the next U.S. president.
Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, has called for American military intervention in Darfur. Other members of the foreign policy team assembled by presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama are former hawks from the Clinton administration, which lobbed cruise missiles at Khartoum in 1998 after labeling the regime a state sponsor of terrorism.
"We want to do something with the Bush administration before they leave," said Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ali Sadiq. "Our experience with the Democrats has been bitter."
Prospects under Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, don't appear much better, Sudanese officials say. McCain's key Africa advisor once dismissed leaders here as "thugs," and McCain has called Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir a liar.
Richard Williamson, the U.S. envoy to Sudan, who reopened talks last month, is scheduled to resume direct negotiations in mid-September, Sudanese officials said.
Under discussion is a proposed agreement by the U.S. to not fight Sudan's bid to postpone an impending ICC arrest warrant for Bashir, officials said.
In return, Khartoum would agree to concessions, including accelerated deployment of United Nations peacekeepers, increased anti-terrorism cooperation and improved humanitarian assistance for the western region of Darfur.
Negotiations broke down this summer amid renewed bloodshed and outrage from Darfur advocacy groups and Democrats over the Bush administration's overtures toward Sudan.
"This reckless and cynical initiative would reward a regime in Khartoum that has a record of failing to live up to its commitments," Obama said in April.
The momentum for renewed talks grew in July after the ICC's prosecutor announced that he would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of genocide.
ICC judges are expected to rule on the request in the coming months, but the Sudanese government has launched a vigorous campaign to press the U.N. Security Council to use its authority to postpone the case. The government argues that an arrest warrant would hinder peace efforts and destabilize Africa's biggest country.
