Obama aides clash over Sudan policy

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By Eli Lake

A dispute over policy toward Sudan has exposed a significant rift between two of President Obama's closest advisers.

The clash - one of the first to become public in the new administration - came into the open Thursday when the president's special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, told Congress that he did not think there was any evidence to support the continued designation of Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism.

The retired Air Force major general told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he has been having an "honest debate" with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, who served as coordinator for foreign policy in Mr. Obama's election campaign.

The Obama administration's Sudan policy, which Mr. Gration predicted would be rolled out "in the next few weeks," is to include an intricate mix of incentives and penalties.

Mr. Gration has taken a softer line than Ms. Rice toward the regime headed by Sudanese President Omar Bashir, going so far last month as to say that the genocide against the people of Darfur was over and that the world was now dealing with the remnants of the killings.

Ms. Rice has continued to call the situation in Darfur genocide, a label first applied to the situation there by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in 2004 at the height of a campaign against farmers in Darfur by Sudan-government backed fighters known as Janjaweed.

The conflict, which has killed at least 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million more, has since become more complicated with anti-government fighters in Darfur splintering into several rebel groups.

Ms. Rice also has said that she supports the indictment of Gen. Bashir for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mr. Gration did not mention the indictment in his testimony Thursday.

Asked about the dispute with Mr. Gration, an aide to Ms. Rice said Thursday that she "is not going to have anything to say about that."

However, a senior administration official, who asked not to be named because he was discussing internal deliberations, acknowledged the rift.