The United States said on Tuesday it was renewing its push for U.N.
sanctions on Sudan's oil industry to press Khartoum to stop the
violence in Darfur, despite a failure to win support for the step last
year. The State Department hopes a new U.N. report that found the
Sudanese government and allied militia systematically abused civilians
in Darfur would prompt U.S. Security Council members to take stronger
action against Khartoum. But it acknowledged the report failed to back
the U.S. contention that Khartoum was responsible for genocide in
Darfur and said Washington had yet to see any change of heart among
Security Council members such as China that oppose oil sanctions and
refused to endorse them last year. "The United States is now
proposing to other council members a number of elements: an
accountability tribunal, deployment of peacekeepers and the imposition
of sanctions, which we believe up the ante and do move aggressively to
try to stop those atrocities," said State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher. Without providing details, Boucher told reporters Washington
had proposed "oil sanctions," an assets freeze and travel ban on
Sudanese officials and militia members and the extension of an arms
embargo on the government. Sudan's crude oil production is
roughly 345,000 barrels per day, according to the latest data from the
U.S. Department of Energy, amounting to about half the production from
the smallest OPEC-member, Qatar. [more]
India's ONGC mulls offer to build Sudan refinery [more]
India aims to team up with China in oil asset race [more]