U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said: "That's a mark of bin Laden's desperation and certainly won't affect our planning." The al Qaeda leader, in an audio tape broadcast on Al Jazeera television, said the United States and Britain, by pushing for a U.N. force in Darfur, were plotting to dismember Sudan. He urged his followers to rise up against them. "I call on the mujahideen and their supporters in Sudan ... and the Arabian peninsula to prepare all that is necessary to wage a long-term war against the Crusaders in western Sudan," bin Laden said.
He called the United Nations an "infidel body" and "a tool to implement Crusader-Zionist resolutions" including measures aimed at dividing and occupying Muslim lands.