US Secretary of State phoned Sudan VP: state media

10/09/2010 10:34

The United States’ top diplomat held a telephone call with the second vice president of Sudan on Wednesday evening. Vice President Ali Osman Taha has been a key point of contact for the Americans for many years. According to state media, Secretary of State Clinton  “praised the efforts of the Sudan government for release of the American hostage who was kidnapped in Darfur.” An US aid worker of the NGO Samaritan’s Purse had been released earlier this month after 105 days in captivitiy.

The United States’ top diplomat held a telephone call with the second vice president of Sudan on Wednesday evening. Vice President Ali Osman Taha has been a key point of contact for the Americans for many years. According to state media, Secretary of State Clinton  “praised the efforts of the Sudan government for release of the American hostage who was kidnapped in Darfur.” An US aid worker of the NGO Samaritan’s Purse had been released earlier this month after 105 days in captivitiy.The US Secretary of State expressed “her concern with the situation in Darfur, and declared the US administration’s support to the efforts to realize security and comprehensive political peace in the region,” reported the Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

Clinton also brought up the referendum for South Sudan. Her phone call with Taha came on the same day that she told reporters that the independence of South Sudan is “ineveitable” and also warned “the situation [in the] north-south is a ticking time bomb of enormous consequence.”

Scott Gration, the top US envoy for Sudan, will be in Sudan early next week for consultations on the referendum.