CAIRO, 19 October 2003 — Sudan said yesterday it saw a deal in current peace talks to end a 20-year-old civil war by the end of the year, and that US Secretary of State Colin Powell may attend the signing of any draft agreement.
Peace talks between Sudan’s Islamist government and the main southern rebel group to end the conflict that has killed almost two million people clinched a key deal on security in the last round. The high-level negotiations resumed in Kenya on Friday.
“My view remains that ... we will reach a (peace) agreement before the end of the year,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in an interview with the pan-Arab Asharq Awsat newspaper.
Ismail said the talks between First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army leader John Garang could reach a draft peace deal by the end of this month, adding Washington would send Powell to the signing. “If matters run as desired then maybe we will reach an advanced stage before the end of this month and we could reach a draft agreement.”
Taha and Garang yesterday resumed a fresh round of talks. The latest round of the talks was launched on Friday. Garang briefly left the talks on Friday following the formal opening ceremony, held near Naivasha, a town 80 kilometers northwest of the Kenyan capital, to travel to Nairobi for an appointment with his doctor.
