Obama to take cautious approach on Sudan?

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama may not be quick to impose the harsh diplomatic or even military measures on Sudan sought by some supporters, analysts said.

Although Sudanese officials believe Obama is likely to listen to Democrats angry over the government's involvement in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur and impose harsh measures against them, others say he will instead take a cautious approach because Sudan's stability is important, The Washington Post reported Monday.

At various times, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the secretary of state designate, has called for a NATO-enforced no-fly zone to "blanket" Darfur, while U.N. ambassador-designate Susan Rice has pushed for U.S. or NATO airstrikes and a naval blockade of Sudan's major port, the Post said.

But others say military options wouldn't work as well now as they have might have in 2004, when the killings in Darfur were at their height, and that President Omar Hassan Bashir's help may be necessary for a regional solution to work.

"Any destabilization of (Bashir's) government and all these Islamist elements will certainly turn into a dangerous force," Saswat Fanous, a political science professor in Khartoum and ruling party lawmaker, told the newspaper.