The SAF's no to the four freedoms

In a statement released late on Sunday the spokesperson of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Colonel al-Sawarmi Khaled Saad, claimed that the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement in North Sudan (SPLA/M-N) with the support of South Sudan was preparing to launch a new offensive in South Kordofan. On these grounds, concluded Saad, it is evident that South Sudan has scrapped the recent agreements signed between Juba and Khartoum. With this statement, it seems, the SAF declares its rejection of the four freedoms framework. In the same vein the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, and the Vice President, al-Haj Adam Yusif, both downplayed the significance of the four freedoms framework and affirmed that it neither affects the 8 April deadline or prejudices the amendments to the Sudanese nationality bill passed by the National Assembly. The Just Peace Forum, I guess, has mustered sufficient political muscle as to hold a veto over the ruling National Congress Party's political choices.