- RABAT (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday
lashed out at the U.S. administration, saying it was dominated by ``Zionists''
working to undermine his country. He also accused Washington of preventing
the U.N. Security Council from sending a fact-finding mission to Khartoum
to verify Sudanese claims that a pharmaceutical plant flattened by by U.S.
cruise missiles last month did not produce chemical weapons as the United
States had said. ``The American aggression was made because the United
States is under the full domination of Zionist forces,'' Bashir told a
news conference in Rabat at the end of a three-day working visit to Morocco.
``In fact, the Jews control all decision-making centres in the United States.
The Secretary of State, Defence Secretary, National Security Adviser, leaders
of the foreign, security and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) are
all Jews. ``Perhaps the only person who is not a Jew is the president.
But then, he is in an unenviable position and has been looking for any
way out of his predicament,'' he added referring the sex scandal now rocking
Bill Clinton's presidency. ``He (Clinton) has ordered the attack to change
the news headlines and also to fulfill Zionist wishes against Sudan which
rejects the Zionist and American policies,'' he added. Washington, accusing
Khartoum of sponsoring terrorism, has pushed for U.N. sanctions on Sudan
for refusing to hand over suspects in the failed assassination attempt
against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in June 1996. Bashir
said the U.S. had also prevented the World Bank from pursuing its aid programme
which he described as a main source for hard currencies in his impoverished
country. ``We have learned to rely on ourselves... In July, Sudan will
enter a new stage as oil exports become an important feature of the national
economic,'' he said, adding that exports will start initially at 150,000
barrels per day. Washington has said the Khartoum facility produced key
ingredients for a deadly nerve agent and was financed by Saudi dissident
Osama Bin Laden, accused by U.S. of masterminding the August 7 bombing
of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. At least 263 people, including
12 Americans, were killed in the bombings. A senior Sudanese official told
Reuters that Bashir sought the support King Hassan of Morocco, a strong
ally of the United States in region, to persuade Washington to ``publicly
admit that the attack on the pharmaceutical plant was a mistake and therefore
should pay compensations.'' Asked whether he discussed the August 20 bombing
with the Moroccan monarch, Bashir said: ``We informed his majesty about
the injustice that has befallen Sudan... We left the matter up to him to
deal with it in the way he feels appropriate.'' Sudan's offer for an international
fact-finding mission enjoys the support of Russia, the Arab League, the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of African Unity, he said. ``We
have lost a factory plant, but in return, we have won the world public
opinion especially in the Arab, Islamic and African worlds that we would
have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get,'' he added.
|
