Interviewed by by Asharq Al-Awsat daily, the former U.S. envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Princeton Lyman, has lacked good reasoning in his description of the nature of the Sudanese-US relations.

Asked why Washington hasn't improved its ties with Sudan or rewarded it for its approval of the secession of South Sudan, Lyman said that is due to governance crisis in Sudan and that the only way is to form a government representing all the Sudanese people. He asked the Sudanese government to improve its relationship with its people.

 

Definitely, when anyone comes over this answer, especially the opposition forces will feel pleased despite the fact that Washington has been punishing the Sudanese people for more than 20 years for its differences with Khartoum.

Asked about US stand on the armed opposition in South Kordofan, the envoy said the elections were conducted under international supervision including the Carter Foundation, but Sudan Liberation Movement-North has rejected the results.

Lyman's second answer negates and contradicts his first one in which he said Sudan suffers governance crisis and that the current government doesn't represent the Sudanese people. He has implicitly, described the elections as free and fair and that SLM-N was advised to accept or appeal against the results.

Therefore, his claim that the current government doesn't represent the Sudanese people is unreasonable, since the government was elected by the majority voters. If the elections were not fair, Washington would have revealed that and told the rebels to reject the results.

On the economic sanctions on Sudan, the envoy has lamented Sudan for that instead of  US government imposing the unilateral sanctions.

Asked about when Sudan will be removed from the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism, he said that this will depend on ending of internal conflicts fanned by US through its generous support to rebels.

Although Sudan has cooperated in the fight against terrorism and has been appreciated for that in many occasions, Washington changes the goal-posts whenever the Sudanese government comes close to being removed from its list. 

Lyman, forgetting his shortcoming and failure, has portrayed black picture about Sudan.