Egypt is still trying to broker peace in Sudan. Dina Ezzat reports A senior Egyptian diplomat arrived in Khartoum this week to promote Egypt as the most obvious peace broker. Assistant Foreign Minister Mohamed Qassem is in the Sudanese capital for talks with the Khartoum regime as well as its opponents in Darfur, in the southwest of the country. Qassem's mission is specially focused to explore the potential of getting the Khartoum regime and Darfur's rebels to negotiate a peace deal. Egyptian officials are reporting "flexibility to an extent" on the side of the Khartoum regime with regards to the power and wealth share demands presented by the rebels. However, the same officials suggest that the rebels are proving to be a tougher problem than the Sudan government. "The rebels are still in disagreement amongst themselves and they tend to exaggerate their demands in view of international sympathy with the humanitarian plight in Darfur," said one official on condition of anonymity. Egypt is blaming the inflexibility of the rebels on many interventions on the part of Arab and Western capitals in the Darfur file. It has been calling on key players in the Darfur file, especially Libya and France, to put pressure on the rebel groups they communicate with in order to get them to show flexibility. "Otherwise this vicious circle of different capitals talking to different rebel groups will end nowhere," commented the same official. Egyptian officials say it is unlikely that Egypt would host a new round of talks among some of the rebel groups as it did a few weeks ago. "The divisions have to be narrowed first before we try to bring them back to Cairo," the official said. And it is not clear when this could happen. Meanwhile, Egypt is coordinating closely with the US administration to support the line of US Envoy Scott Gration on Darfur. In recent press statements and in a congressional hearing, Gration said that the US is committed to work closely with the Khartoum regime and the Darfur rebels to achieve peace in the west of Sudan and to bring to an end a civil war that is estimated to have killed around 300,000 Sudanese and included many atrocities, including systematic rape. Sources who follow the Gration- Khartoum talks say that the US envoy managed to get the Sudanese government to cooperate in containing humanitarian violations at the vast refugee camps in Darfur. They say that Gration's openness towards Khartoum and "his promises to try to lift Sudan off the list of terror sponsoring states" is granting him graciousness from the regime. For their part, independent international observers who monitor the situation in Darfur welcome the keenness of Gration to bring peace to Darfur. They, however, warn that for peace to come to Darfur an end has to be brought to overlapping initiatives. "Especially within the Arab world. Libya, Qatar and Egypt need to find a way to unify their otherwise contradicting efforts." In parallel to the visit of Qassem, a senior Qatari envoy arrived to Sudan to announce the near completion of $1 million projects in Darfur that included among other things water and sanitation and building schools. Qatar is also planning a new round of talks between the Khartoum regime and the main Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. For its part, Libya this week hosted a handful of rebel leaders in a fresh attempt to work on unifying the positions of Darfur's rebels on power and wealth share demands on the Khartoum regime. Egyptian diplomats suggest that Cairo tried to coordinate efforts with Libya but was not successful. Qatar seems an unlikely partner for Egyptian diplomacy due to the ongoing rift between Cairo and Doha, they add. Meanwhile, some international aid workers have criticised that the diplomatic bazaar over Darfur has lost contact with Darfurians in the camps. "Some of the rebel leaders have lost contact with their real constituency in Darfur as they spend their time in Western capitals. And the brokers are not really in touch with the Darfurians in the camps," said one international worker. According to this worker rebel leaders and peace brokers seem to be loosing sight of the fact that Darfurians in camps need to be able to go back to their villages where they can build a peaceful and sustainable life. Despite statements made by some UN officials reporting an overall improvement in the situation in Darfur, international observes caution that "violations still occur" and that in the absence of a peace deal the situation could worsen. On another front, tensions between the north and south of Sudan have resurfaced. The killing of some 185 Sudanese in the south last week during a dispute over natural resources rang alarm bells that the fragile peace deal that was signed in 2005 between the north and south of Sudan is being seriously challenged. Egyptian diplomatic sources dismissed Western reports that cautioned against a potential new civil war between the north and south of Sudan. They said, however, that there are enough signs that peace between the south and north is challenged and that the chances of a vote for unity in the scheduled 2011 referendum on secession are not high -- to the dismay of Egypt. "This is our big concern now because this is about the unity or division of Sudan," commented an Egyptian diplomat. Egypt has been increasingly working to promote development in the south of Sudan. "We already worked on some projects and we are considering some other projects," he added. Egypt has been trying to encourage the US to adopt the cause of maintaining Sudan's territorial unity. Concerned officials report some success. Indeed, this week Gration also spoke of Washington's interest to see the fragile peace deal between the north and the south fully implemented. During his talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington next week, President Hosni Mubarak is likely to press upon his host the importance of upholding Sudan's territorial integrity.
