KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Sudan's ruling National Congress Party dismissed as a fabrication WikiLeaks cables revealing the country asked for U.S. help normalizing relations with Israel.
Qutbi al-Mahdi, the head of the NCP's political sector, said Sudan strongly supports the Palestinian cause and has not sought to normalize relations with Israel, as U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks indicated, the Sudan Tribune reported.
Al-Mahdi also brushed aside other revelations in the WikiLeaks cables, including ones that prominent Sudan businessman Osama Daoud has been critical of the government and that presidential adviser Musa Hilal has blamed the ruling party for the atrocities in the western region of Darfur.
"These releases are worthless and nothing but an attempt to discredit leaders who proved their loyalty to Sudan for over 20 years," al-Mahdi told reporters in Khartoum on Monday.
The Tribune said one cable indicated presidential adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din told U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration at a February 2010 meeting that Doha peace talks on Darfur would likely fail if they excluded al-Fur, the largest ethnic group in the region.
The cable revealed Salah al-Din urged Gration to continue to involve al-Fur rebels and civilians in the peace process, which concluded in July with the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement with one rebel faction, the Tribune said.
