Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
said on national television Friday, with a dispute over oil and other issues stoking tensions.
"The climate now is closer to a climate of war than one of peace," he said.
Bashir spoke after South Sudanese President Salva Kiir warned on Thursday that renewed conflict could erupt if oil negotiations with Khartoum do not include a deal on other key issues, including the contested Abyei region.
Tensions have also been raised by the still undemarcated border, parts of which cut through oilfields, as well as mutual allegations that each side backs rebel forces against the other.
But Bashir said Sudan will not go to war "unless it is imposed on us."
South Sudan separated last July after an overwhelming vote that followed two decades of civil war which killed two million people.
The crisis between the neighbors has become a major threat to regional peace and security, United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
chief
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
has said.
Juba announced last Sunday it had nearly completed a protest shutdown of its oil production after talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa failed again to resolve a disagreement with Sudan over oil fees.
Khartoum admits to confiscating 1.7 million barrels of South Sudanese crude since vowing in November to take 23 percent of southern oil exports as payment in kind during the fee dispute.
The South calls this "theft."