Sudan’s Beshir holds meetings amid reports peace deal is near
KHARTOUM, Sept 11 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir began here Thursday an intensive round of consultations on progress in negotiations in Kenya with the southern rebel movement aimed at ending the 20-year civil war, an official said.
Sudan’s state-run Al-Anbaa daily reported meanwhile from Kenya that senior officials from the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) were about to sign a deal paving the way for a final peace agreement.
There was no immediate confirmation from the talks venue in Kenya.
Beshir met in his presidential palace in Khartoum with Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, the secretary general of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), to discuss the “progress of negotiations” in Kenya, a NCP official said.
He said the two met for about one hour from 12 noon (0900 GMT) and that Beshir would continue separate meetings throughout the day with cabinet ministers and members of parliament.
He gave no other details but Omar told Thursday’s edition of Al-Anbaa that “cautious optimism is our general attitude towards the negotiations.”
He was referring to high-level negotiations taking place near Naivasha, Kenya involving Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang.
Beshir’s day-long meetings will focus on “the speedy developments” in the peace process “in light of the tremedous progress made by the government and popular movement (SPLA) delegations,” Omar told the newspaper.
Al-Anbaa, reporting from Naivasha, quoted unnamed sources as expecting the government and the SPLA to sign later Thursday a comprehensive memorandum of understanding that will pave the way for a peace agreement.
The newspaper quoted SPLA sources as saying Garang had told his deputy Silva Kiir to sign the memorandum while he travelled to his headquarters in Rumbek in southern Sudan on Thursday morning to consult with the SPLA leadership about preparations for the signing ceremony for the final agreement.
Such a ceremony would be held in Washington on October 15, Al-Anbaa said.
The paper cited sources “close” to the negotiations as saying the two sides managed to “surmount” the most contentious issues, including an agreement on power-sharing that would include the appointment of two vice presidents.