From Washington Post:

EL FASHER, Sudan — The volatility of this East African nation — from the Darfur conflict to the threat of renewed civil war in the south — is becoming a test of how President Obama will reconcile a policy of engagement with earlier statements blasting a government he said had “offended the standards of our common humanity.”
Top administration officials are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss a major review of the United States’ Sudan policy. But even as that document is being finalized, U.S. diplomacy has remained mostly in the hands of one man, Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who is pushing for normalizing relations with the only country in the world led by a president indicted for war crimes.
Although Gration describes the approach as pragmatic and driven by a sense of urgency, his critics here and in the United States say it is dangerously, perhaps willfully, naive….
During a recent five-day trip to Sudan, Gration heard from southern officials, displaced Darfuris, rebels and others who complained uniformly that he is being manipulated by government officials who talk peace even as they undermine it.
Still, at the end of the visit, Gration maintained a strikingly different perspective. He had seen signs of goodwill from the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, he said, and viewed many of the complaints as understandable yet unfair, knee-jerk reactions to a government he trusts is ready to change.
“We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration, who was appointed in March. “Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.” …