The UN Security Council took up Darfur again this week, passing Resolution 1769, which authorizes the creation and deployment of a hybrid United Nations-African Union force (to be known as "UNAMID"). About this time last year, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1706, which authorized a UN force for Darfur. That force never came about -- a first in UN history, I understand -- because Sudan refused to agree to its deployment. Now, Khartoum has agreed to UNAMID, at least in theory.

But that doesn't mean it can't impede, resist, hinder and delay every step of the way. And it can do that without much fear of repercussion, because the price of China's support for 1769 was the removal of any threat of sanctions for non-compliance. Add to that a less-than-urgent schedule for UNAMID's deployment and serious issues of where the forces will actually come from -- Khartoum has demanded that the force be "primarily of an African character" but it's not clear whether significant additional African forces are even available -- and one can't be optimistic that greater protection for civilians in Darfur is very much closer.