Depending on what source one chooses to believe, the judges on the International Criminal Court (ICC) either have or have not issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. Whatever the reality of the situation, two things appear clear:
1) Whether the warrant has been issued or not, the noose is circling around al-Bashir, and presumably others in his inner circle. He may be able to buy time. But if he does, he had better have some concrete gains to show for that time.
2) Things are likely to get more complicated before they get less so, whether in Darfur or anyplace else where al-Bashir and his cronies have wrought destabilization. An indictment is hardly likely to make Khartoum more conciliatory, after all.