SUDAN/DARFUR: BASHIR TELLS UN ANNABI "NOT YET" ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 000912 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR D AND AF/SPG; ABUJA FOR HUME E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL SU UN SUBJECT: SUDAN/DARFUR: BASHIR TELLS UN ANNABI "NOT YET" ON ASSESSMENT TEAM FOR AMIS-UN TRANSITION Classified By: Charge Andrew Steinfeld for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) President Bashir met with UN Assistant SYG for peacekeeping, Hedi Annabi, in Khartoum on April 15. Pronk political aide Jack Christofidis provided Charge with the following readout from the meeting. ¶2. (C) While Bashir did not say "no, never" to a UN transition and to the assessment mission needed to effect such a transition, Annabi received a clear "not yet" from Sudan's President. According to Christofidis, Bashir was clearly not prepared at this time to accept the assessment mission, a position that surprised the UN, as they had been expecting a more forthcoming answer by Bashir since he had agreed to meeting Annabi. Christofidis said that a lot more lobbying of Bashir would be necessary to get him to bend. ¶3. (C) When Charge asked whether the UN would request the visas for the team anyway, something the U.S. thought would be important in terms of putting Bashir on the spot, Christofidis said that the UN well understood the U.S. position, but continued to disagree. It made no sense, he said, getting a "no" from the Sudanese on paper. Bashir needed first to be brought to a more forthcoming position. ¶4. (C) Charge asked whether Kofi Annan had ever connected with Bashir, and Christofidis said that he had not: after waiting more than a week, Bashir had not returned the UNSYG's phone call. Rather, Annabi delivered a letter from Kofi Annan to Bashir at their meeting. ¶5. (C) Annabi has now traveled to the South to review UNMIS operations. He will provide a read-out to ambassadors on Wednesday before departing Sudan. Annabi's message, according to Christofidis, will be that more international pressure on Bashir is necessary in order to move forward on AMIS-UN transition. STEINFELD