SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Foreign Policy – The World Food Program’s Freelance Diplomacy
Foreign Policy report that US and UN diplomats are irritated by the mediation efforts of David Beasley, the executive director of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).
Beasley’s “diplomatic freelancing” was blocked by Volker Perthes, the UN’s special representative in Sudan, as his mediation attempts were not sanctioned by the UN
nor coordinated with key diplomatic capitals. A diplomatic source said: “introducing a new mediator and creating doubt as to what the US position is… has been net negatives for US diplomacy”.
In addition, Beasley’s negotiation efforts counter the Sudanese protest movement’s demands that civilian rule is restored before any negotiation.
Although others suggest that Beasley is “filling a diplomatic vacuum” as “the international response to Sudan’s latest political crisis was muddled and weak, diluted by multiple overlapping efforts from various parties, including the US, UN and African Union, to find a way to negotiate themselves out of the crisis”.