China Won’t Seek Bashir Deferral

This according to the Sudan Tribune:

A senior Chinese official suggested that his country has no plans to introduce a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution suspending the indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

China’s special envoy to Africa Liu Guijin told the pro-government daily Al-Rayaam in a rare interview that he toured Washington, Paris and London to discuss the ICC move without elaborating on the outcome of these talks.

[snip]

The African Union, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) called for invoking Article 16 which allows the UNSC to suspend the ICC prosecutions in any case for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.

But Guijin said that the UNSC has received no formal request for invoking Article 16 of the Rome Statute.

“There are some ideas to freeze the decision [ICC] from the AU and Arab League but as of yet no country or organization formally introduced a resolution at the UN” he said in response to a question on whether China will table a resolution.

Western members of the UNSC such as US and France made it clear that they would veto such a resolution was introduced at this point in time.

This is very good news, and once again we owe the US our thanks.  (Given France’s waffling on the Article 16 issue, I think it’s premature to thank it, as well.)  Without the US’s open opposition to deferring the ICC’s prosecution — and yes, I still find it hard to believe that I am writing this sentence — I think there is little doubt that China would pursue a deferral resolution more aggressively.