Washington | Wednesday
THE United States has reached out to Cuba and Sudan, two countries it deems “state sponsors of terrorism,” as it moves to build a global anti-terror coalition after last week’s strikes, the State Department said on Tuesday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail on Monday to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation, after Khartoum sent a condolence message to Washington and said it wanted to assist in the campaign, representative Richard Boucher said.
“They talked about the kind of cooperation we can have,” Boucher told reporters. “It was a good first discussion.”
The call to Ismail is believed to be the highest-level contact between the United States and Sudan in several years.
In 1998, the United States launched a missile strike against a target near Khartoum in retaliation for the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which have been blamed on exiled Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Monday’s conversation between Powell and Ismail followed a US overture last week to long-time foe Cuba in which US diplomats called at the Cuban Interest Section in Washington to ask the communist government for help, he said.
“We asked the Cubans through our traditional channel for any information they might have about terrorist attacks,” Boucher said.
That meeting occurred on Friday and Boucher said he was not aware of any response from Havana, where Fidel Castro has spoken out against last week’s strikes.
The contact with Cuba and Sudan comes as US officials say they are encouraged by positive signs from Iran and Syria, two other countries listed as “state sponsors of terrorism. – AFP