(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-27 10:25

KHARTOUM - The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned on Saturday the Charge D'Affaires of the US embassy in Khartoum Alberto Fernandez to convey to him the protest of the Sudanese government over his recent remarks regarding Sudan, the official news agency SUNA reported.

Abdel-Basit Al-Sanousi, director of the America Department in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, said that Fernandez was notified by the ministry that his remarks were considered as "flagrant intervention in the internal affairs of Sudan."

These remarks would impede progress of implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between northern and southern Sudan and the ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, Al-Sanousi said.

The Sudanese government and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed the CPA on January 9, 2005 in order to end the conflict between the two sides, which is termed as one of the longest civil wars in the African continent.

He added that Fernandez's remarks would not help in the continuation of dialogue between the two countries.

Al-Sanousi said that Fernandez was told that the US policy towards Sudan was based on stances that did not help in improving bilateral ties for US continuing imposition of sanctions on Sudan and appointing envoys to Sudan who had backgrounds and stances biased against Sudan.

Fernandez was also told that the Sudanese Presidency had the full sovereign right to appoint any one it chose to assume any constitutional post in accordance with the supreme interests of the country, Al-Sanousi said, referring to the appointment of Mousa Hilal as a senior official and the objection made by the press office of the US State Department over the appointment.

Al-Sanousi also urged the US administration to release Sudanese nationals detained in the US military base in Guantanamo Bay as soon as possible.

Fernandez, in an interview with Reuters news agency which was broadcast on Thursday, claimed that a distrust of the Sudanese government due to a string of broken promises was the biggest obstacle to planned talks to end the five-year-old conflict in Darfur.

"Do you trust the government of Sudan if you are a rebel or if you are an IDP (internally displaced) or if you're a member of an Arab tribe that was given all these promises by the government that were never met?" Fernandez was quoted as saying in the interview.

Fernandez also claimed that a political crisis over stalled implementation of Sudan's separate north-south peace deal and other unfulfilled commitments would directly affect Darfur peace talks due in the coming months.

Earlier on Tuesday, the US State Department strongly criticized the Sudanese government for appointing Mousa Hilal, a militia leader Washington accused of involvement in Darfur's war crimes, as an adviser to Federal Affairs Minister Abdel Basit Sabderat.