In a warning letter to nations that might contribute troops to a peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan has said it would consider such forces hostile and a prelude to an invasion. The United States ambassador to the United Nations lambasted Sudan for trying to intimidate U.N. member nations.
"This is an unprecedented assertion by a government that is about to be a beneficiary of an extended U.N. peacekeeping mission," Ambassador John Bolton said, "to assert that a humanitarian mission to prevent genocide in Darfur is a prelude to an invasion."
Sudan agreed to allow the United Nations to bolster an ill-equipped African Union force already on the ground. But it rejects the idea of the U.N. taking over.
In a recent speech on Sudan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the goal has to go well beyond sending in U.N. troops and feeding the hungry.
Diplomats are piling on the pressure to try to get Sudan to agree to let in U.N. troops. In what sounded like a threat of her own, Secretary Rice said recently that Sudan has a choice: cooperation or confrontation.
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