Following are excerpts from an interview with Nafe' Ali Nafe', senior advisor to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on December 8, 2010:

Interviewer: What role is Israel playing in achieving the partitioning [of Sudan]?

Nafe' Ali Nafe': What role is Israel playing in achieving the partitioning [of Sudan]?

Interviewer: As you've stated, Israel is playing a significant role.

Nafe' Ali Nafe': This is not just an assessment, but is based on information published by Israel itself. The former Israeli defense minister, who was also head of the Israeli military intelligence in the past, said so, when he entered office in November this year, I think. They admit that they have a presence in South Sudan, and that they have been operating there since the rebellion began in the 1950s, along with the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, and that they have been working for secession of the south.

In my view, in addition to the direct intervention of the Israeli state, the American Jewish lobbies play a tremendous role, and, in my opinion, can twist the arm of even the US administration, to make it go in the direction they want.

Interviewer: So the Jewish and Israeli lobbies play a role in the significant American operations in Sudan?

Nafe' Ali Nafe': They play a large role.

Interviewer: It is not US policy as much as it is Israeli-Jewish pressure?

Nafe' Ali Nafe': The US policy is the result of this pressure.

Interviewer: So US policy and its perception of Sudan, and all these delegations that come and go – John Kerry went there twice in two weeks – are meant, first and foremost, to help Israel?

Nafe' Ali Nafe': Not in this sense, but in the sense that US policy cannot free itself from the influence of the Jewish-American lobby. Even US envoys who gain a real understanding of the issue encounter stubbornness that might even lead to their replacement.

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