U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios said President George Bush has approved new
sanctions on Sudan.
"It's pretty clear the president is angrier than anyone else on this,"
Natsios said. "He gets very upset when he talks to me about this situation.
He is very frustrated by it."
"It's simply the case that the Sudanese government needs to recognize
that the international community can't stand idly by while people suffer,"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Officials said the sanctions would
restrict companies that operate in Sudan and seize bank accounts of three
leading regime figures.
But neither Natsios nor Ms. Rice nor Natsios would say
when the penalties would take effect.
Meanwhile, Sudan has been deemed responsible for the Al
Qaida attack on the USS Cole in 2000.
A U.S. judge ordered the Sudanese regime to pay damages to the families
of 17 sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. On
March 14, U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar said he would determine
compensation at a later date.
"I don't think there's any question that there is substantial evidence
in this case, presented by expert testimony, that the government of Sudan
induced the particular bombing of the Cole," Doumar said in his ruling in
Virginia.
Attorneys for the relatives of the dead sailors presented evidence that
Sudan provided financial and logistical support to Al Qaida. The plaintiffs
said Sudan hosted Al Qaida training camps and enabled Osama Bin Laden to
invest in the country.
The award to the families was expected to be taken from the $68 million
in Sudanese assets frozen by the United States. The assets were suspended in
wake of a determination by the State Department that Sudan was a terrorist
sponsor.
During the two-day civil trial, which did not include a jury, attorneys
for the Khartoum regime did not challenge the evidence of a Sudanese link
with Al Qaida. Instead, the defense sought to dismiss the case on procedural
grounds.
Officials said Sudan harbored Bin Laden and Al Qaida in the early 1990s.
But they said Khartoum aided U.S. intelligence after Al Qaida's suicide air
strikes over New York and Washington in 2001.
