KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 30 (UPI) -- New U.S. sanctions against Sudan may have little impact on the country's lucrative oil exports, the United States' special envoy for Sudan said.
"The purpose of these sanctions is not sanctions," Special Envoy Andrew Natsios said in a New York Times report. "The purpose of these sanctions is to send a message to the Sudanese government to start behaving differently when they deal with their own people."
U.S. President George Bush announced the sanctions, which target 30 Sudanese companies, two government officials and the leader of a rebel group, on Tuesday as an effort to end the violence in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died and another 2.5 million have been displaced by violence in Darfur.
Analysts said current sanctions against more than 100 companies have had a limited impact and are not enforced consistently.
"Sudan has been quite adept at avoiding sanctions for the past decade and this is not going to have a lot of bite," Philippe de Pontet, a political risk analyst at the Eurasia Group in Washington, told the Times.
