Al-Bashir links Darfur push to US Middle East policy

SUDAN’S president has lashed out at the US and Britain, saying Washington’s plans to create a “new Middle East” were behind an international push to replace African Union peacekeepers with United Nations troops in war-torn Darfur.

President Omar al-Bashir has always opposed UN intervention in Sudan’s remote Darfur region, but he has escalated his anti-Western rhetoric in an appeal to muster domestic support for what he implied would be a lengthy stand-off with the international community.

In a speech to cabinet ministers and journalists in Khartoum, Mr al-Bashir said the US and Britain wanted to recraft the region in Israel’s interests.