August 23, 2009



Thank you very much and let me say to all my friends here Ramadan Karim.

Let me just start out by saying thank you to my friend, his Excellency Amre Moussa.

I am on a trip that has taken me to Juba, to Khartoum, to Addis Ababa and here to Cairo. But I needed to spend some time with my friend because I value his judgment, his insights and his perspectives on the issues that I am dealing with.

In Juba, we were working on the full implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement and we were able to reach agreement on this and a paper that was actually initialed between the National Congress Party and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement. We have also been working on the Darfur issue.

In Addis Ababa, we had meetings with four rebel groups in an effort to unify these factions as a nucleus to prepare for the talks that we will have in Doha that we believe will end up in a lasting and durable peace for this region that has known so much instability and insecurity.

We had four-party talks here today, with Libya and Cairo and Sudan and the United States. These were hosted by General Soliman and the Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit. We appreciate being able to come to Cairo and to Egypt because Egypt had played such an important role in Sudan and we continue to look for the leadership and perspective and input from our friends here in Egypt.

And I say again thank you very much to the Arab League and the very positive role that you have played personally and your organization has played in the process to bring security and stability and economic prosperity to this part of the world. So thank you very much and I appreciate it.

Question: What is the difference between the four-party meeting today in Cairo and the Doha efforts? Are those complementary or contradicting? How are you going to bring Abdel Wahed into the paradigm you are working on?

General Gration: First of all, Doha is the place that the AU - UN mediator will conduct the final talks that will end up in the peace agreement. It is being facilitated by Qatar, and especially the foreign minister, so that is a process that is going on, on that track. But what we had today in the four-party talks is maybe a broader and a complementary effort that is number one supportive to the talks in Doha but also looks at other issues that are bigger than just Darfur. It looks at the North-South issues between Juba and Khartoum and it looks at regional issues.

In terms of Abdel Wahed, we believe that his group, his commanders and the people that he has been leading need to be part of the process. And part of the roadmap met the rebels that were in Addis Ababa put together will be an effort to engage with his people, with his commanders to bring them into the process and will see how this process takes place. But we believe that in the end we have to have a unified approach that all the people of Darfur have to be represented and the people that have been looking to Abdel Wahed, that he needs to be part of the process or we need to find an alternative.

Question: How do you assess your cooperation with Libya? This is a new mode of interaction between the U.S. and Libya.

General Gration: I must tell you I am very impressed and very grateful to the role the Libyans are playing, not only in rebel unification but in bringing peace between Chad and Sudan, and I see the Libyans have a very positive role and they certainly had a very positive impact today and we are very proud to be partners with the Libyans.