Western diplomats warn against military action to overthrow Bashir’s regime
August 4, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese officials said Sunday that Western diplomats expressed their support to peaceful solution of the ongoing conflict and warned against any military action aiming to overthrow the government in Khartoum.
The official news agency SUNA said that Western diplomats from Canada, France and United States met with the SPLM-North secretary general Yasir Arman in London last month to inform him they only support negotiated settlement to the conflicts in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur.
According to the agency, citing diplomatic sources, the meeting took place following a consultation meeting organized on 14-17 July by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre) in Geneva to promote peaceful solutions to the different conflicts in the country.
Arman was not able to attend the meeting as he applied for a visa a week before the meeting while the application for Schengen visa has to be submitted at least 15 days before the trip. Switzerland joint the Schengen visa scheme since December 2008.
At the time, rebel leader Minni Minnawi who attended the meeting told Sudan Tribune that American and Canadian diplomats supported the comprehensive solution for the conflicts in the two areas and Darfur.
However, the UN Security Council, in a resolution adopted on 30 July to extend the UNMAID mandate, warned rebel groups against military action to topple the Sudanese regime and called on Darfur groups to negotiate a peaceful solution under the basis of Doha Document for Peace in Darfur.
Arman also recently announced SPLM-N readiness to engage talks under the UN resolution 2046 (2012) which calls to hold direct negotiations to end the two-year conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile on the basis of a framework agreement signed on 28 June 2012.
The framework agreement, which was later on denounced by Sudanese president Omer Al-Bahsir in July 2011, provides that the two parties once they implement the outstanding issues in a protocol related to the two areas would establish a partnership and work together to achieve democratic transition in Sudan together with other political forces.
(ST)