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September 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail dismissed a Wikileaks cable quoting him as telling the US charge d’affaires that his country wants Washington’s help to establish relations with Israel.
- FILE - Mustafa Osman Ismail, an advisor to the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir, speaks on December 2, 2010, the final day of a conference in Kuwait City, where donors and investors have pledged 3.55 billion dollars for the development of resource-rich but neglected east Sudan (AFP)
The leaked diplomatic cable spoke of a meeting between Ismail and the former top US diplomat in Sudan Alberto Fernandez on July 29, 2008. This was almost two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor announced his intention to seek an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president Omar Hassan al-Bashir on ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.
In the context of seeking to normalise Sudan-US relations, Ismail told Fernandez that Khartoum drafted a strategy for working with the US with immediate, intermediate, and long-term goals.
As an example, he stated that one aspect of this strategy included normalisation of relations with Israel, because "if things were going well with the U.S., you might be able to help us with Israel, as they are your closest ally in the region".
But the Sudanese official described the content of the cable as false.
Ismail was quoted by the independent Al-Akhbar newspaper as saying that Sudan “refuses to cooperate with the Zionist entity altogether”.
“What was attributed to me by the impostor website Wikileaks is just outright fabrication against me and the Mujahidist government of Sudan," the Sudanese official said.
"We have become accustomed to such malicious accusations, especially from this site" he added.
He noted a previous accusation made on one of these cables by the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo that President al-Bashir has stashed $9 billion in a UK bank, which Ismail said turned out to be a lie.
“We are continuing our work for the elevation of Sudan and protection of its land and welfare of its people, and we will not get affected by these rumors" Ismail said.
He stressed that "Sudan’s official and popular stance on the Israeli enemy is known in advance, a position that refuses to cooperate with the Zionist entity altogether".
Sudan does not recognise Israel and has ruled out the possibility of doing so. It has reacted with anger at the quick moves taken by the new state of South Sudan towards establishing ties with Israel.
(ST)
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