Both top U.N. peacekeeping official Jean-Marie Guehenno and the U.N. Security Council president on Wednesday praised the agreement with Khartoum earlier this week allowing a hybrid U.N.-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force for Darfur. “It is a step forward, we will need to build on the goodwill it has created,” said Guehenno, who briefed the Security Council on peacekeeping efforts in Darfur. “We have no reason to doubt the commitments that were made,” Guehenno said in response to skepticism about Khartoum's intentions. “We certainly have today an agreement with the government of Sudan on the hybrid mission, and that is something significant.” Sudan had previously demanded that only African troops enter Darfur, calling deployment of Western forces a breach of its sovereignty. “I have no reason to believe that the troop contributors will be rejected, and I wouldn't want to second-guess the government of Sudan on that,” Guehenno said. The current Security Council president, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke, spoke with reporters after Guehenno's briefing and called for a “timely and full implementation of the agreement” on a hybrid peacekeeping force.
