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CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - President Bush is threatening to punish Sudan by cutting off its vital oil industry from the U.S. financial system, unless Khartoum takes steps to calm troubled Darfur.
But such sanctions are unlikely to hurt Sudan at all, oil analysts say: China, its biggest customer, already has adapted to similar U.S. pressure on Iran by buying oil in another powerful, rising currency — euros — and can do the same on Sudan.
The issue highlights the difficulty the United States faces in finding effective ways to sanction Sudan in order to ease the humanitarian suffering in Darfur, at a time when oil prices are high and the U.S. dollar is weak.
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