The Sudanese government is not worried that it might be a target in the next stage of the US-led "anti-terror war", Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha said in remarks published by local press Wednesday.
"We have nothing that makes us fear an American strike and we cannot see any reason for such a strike," Taha told local newspaper editors overnight.
Taha ruled out a US strike on Sudan as part of the United States' plans for expanding its military operation after its defeat of Afghanistan's Taliban militia and Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Taha said there was no readon for Sudan to be on the list of "possible targets of a US strike."
Media reports have speculated on Sudan, Somalia and Yemen as potential bases for the al-Qaeda network to rebuild itself.
Taha said his government is aware that there are groups looking to lobby the US administration to take a hardline stance against Sudan.
He accused those groups, which he did not identify by name, of trying to push the US government to attack Sudan.
"What is being circulated is nothing more than press reports that are not supported by official statements," Taha said.
He added that the US administration has not given any sign that it intends to strike Sudan.
Sudan hosted bin Laden, the alleged head of al-Qaeda, from 1992 to 1996, when he was deported to Afghanistan under heavy US pressure.
The United States fired missiles on a Khartoum pharmaceutical plant in 1998, under the suspicion it was owned by bin Laden and produced chemical weapons – Khartoum (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
