The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in the Qatari capital of Doha Thursday, has prompted many questions on its ability to achieve the long-awaited peace in the region, particularly that some major Darfur armed groups have rejected it.

Viewpoints varied regarding the agreement which was a culmination of around 30 months of marathon negotiations between the Sudanese government and representatives of armed groups from the Darfur region which has been witnessing a civil war since 2003.

In this respect, Mohamed Osman Hashim, a Darfuri leader and Finance Minister of West Darfur State, told Xinhua that "we consider the Darfur peace agreement as a great addition to the peace process in Darfur. What characterizes this agreement is that it has received a great consensus from the Darfur people."

"This agreement has also received support from the international community, particularly the African Union and the United Nations," he added.

Hashim further reiterated that the agreement has addressed all the essential issues of the Darfur people, saying that "the document has attached concern to the issue of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur together with the issue of rehabilitating the areas destroyed by the war during the past years."

He went on saying that "the concern with these issues could greatly help in boosting the security and stability in Darfur, particularly that the states of the region have started to witness great rush of returning IDPs to their home areas."

"The document tends to enhance the process of rehabilitating the villages and war-affected areas and boost the economic development in the region, particularly with the commitment of Qatar State and the international community to support the development in Darfur," he noted.

He further urged the Darfur groups which are rejecting the Darfur peace agreement to join in to end the suffering of the Darfur people, saying that "this agreement has been supported by the international community and the people of the region, therefore the armed groups must take this historical opportunity."

However, Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Iyssa, a Sudanese political analyst, believed that the Doha agreement was an extension of what he termed as "a series of incomplete agreements."

"The aspirations expected to be achieved by the agreement are not much," he told Xinhua.

He added that "this is attributed for many reasons, top of which is the absence of many influential armed groups in the Darfur region, namely the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/ Abdul-Wahid Nur faction. This absence may affect the peace process in the region where the movements rejecting the agreement could launch offensive operations to prove their presence on the scene in the region."

He held the armed movements rejecting the peace agreement the responsibility of failure to reach a comprehensive agreement to end the region's conflict, saying that "I hold the movements rejecting to sign the document the responsibility of what would happen to the Darfur people. I do not see any convincing reasons for their rejection of the negotiation with the government under the opportunities availed by the mediation."

"The Doha agreement is a positive step for Darfur, but I fear that Abuja agreement experience would be repeated and I fear that the rejecting armed movements would resort to escalating the military operations. If such a thing happens, the agreement would not achieve its main goal which is stability and peace," he noted.

The Qatari capital of Doha on Thursday hosted the signing ceremony of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the Darfur Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), led by Al-Tigani El-Sissi.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, a number of Head of States of Sudan's neighbor countries, and representatives of the African Union, the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and regional and international partners.

The Darfur draft peace agreement, which tackles issues relating to power and wealth sharing, human rights, basic rights, return of the refugees and IDPs, compensation, justice, permanent ceasefire, security arrangements, implementation mechanisms, the Darfur- Darfur dialogue, the status of the region and reconciliations, has recently been endorsed via a conference for the Darfur stakeholders in Doha.

The JEM, led by Khalil Ibrahim and the alliance of the SLA/ Minni Minnawi faction and SLA/Abdul-Wahid Nur faction have rejected to sign the agreement and insisted that it was "a partial agreement" that did not fulfill the demands of the Darfur people.

Ahmed Tugud, JEM senior negotiator, was quoted by Sudanese dailies Thursday as saying that "we are against signing any partial agreement that does not fulfill the demands of our people in Darfur."

Meanwhile, official SUN news agency on Thursday quoted Omer Adam Rahma, Spokesperson of Sudan government delegation to Doha talks, as saying that "the agreement, which was signed today, between the government and the LJM, grants the movement the post of a federal minister, two state ministers, a governor for one of the new states in Darfur and ministers and commissioners in the region."

The participation of the Darfur people in power would be according to the percentage of the Darfur people in the Sudan population, he added, according to SUNA.

He further regretted JEM's boycotting of the Doha agreement, saying that "we hoped the JEM would be one of the signatories of the agreement and the Darfur peace document but the movement has its declared stance where it is talking about issues of national nature that do not relate to Darfur issues."