US meddling to blame for ‘all Arab world sufferings’ – Sudan president

The bloody conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Libya are the result of the interference by the US, which wants to gain control over the rich natural resources of those countries, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told RT.

“The people in Sudan believe that the since the fall of the Soviet Union [in 1991], injustice and oppression has prevailed around the globe as the US became the sole hegemon and began running things with impunity in many regions, including ours,” Bashir said.

In his interview with RT’s Arabic Channel, the Sudanese president labeled Washington’s policies in Middle East and North Africa as “harmful and destructive.”

“Just look at what’s now happening in Iraq and how it spread to Syria. All the suffering that is going in the Arab world is the work of the US,” he said.

The events in Iraq, Syria and Libya “are the result of the US, the Western meddling; it’s a manifestation of colonialism, which has just one aim to it – establishing control over the region and its natural resources," Bashir said.

Sudan is constantly coming under pressure from international organizations “due to its firm stance, which is antagonistic toward US policies in the region,” he said.

In the most recent example, Bashir pointed to a UN/African Union Mission investigation into the claims by opposition radio that 200 female residents of the village of Tabit in war-torn Darfur region were raped in November.

The first inquiry revealed that no such crime took place, but “the hegemon [the US] was dissatisfied with such a conclusion and ordered another check,” the president said.

“As for the second investigation, we’re confident that there’s already a report on it prepared beforehand in Washington or New York,” he stressed.

The Tabit investigation, as well as the ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) inquiry into genocide and crimes against humanity during the War in Darfur “are attempts to break the will of the Sudanese,” Bashir said.

“We’re talking about regime change in Sudan to put in power the new regime that would obey the West,” he said.

The president also called the ICC in The Hague “one of the tools of neo-colonialism, which is trying to [subdue] smaller countries, especially, the ones in Africa.”

“This court is based in Europe, but it only passes judgment on the Africans,” Bashir said.

The war between the government and the militias, accusing the regime of oppression against Sudan’s non-Arabs, began in the country’s western region of Darfur in 2003.

According to UN estimates, the bloody conflict took over 300,000 lives and saw 2 million people displaced. Sudanese authorities put the death toll at around 10,000.

Bashir has been re-elected three times since becoming Sudan’s president since in a 1989 bloodless coup.

In November, he announced that he’ll run for office again in the next election, which scheduled to take place in the country in April.