Bashir’s visit to Syria aims to repair Arab relations: official

December 18, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Presidential Assistant Faisal Hassan Ibrahim said that President Omar al-Bashir’s visit to Syria is part of his initiative to reconcile Arab countries and overcome division triggered by the Syrian crisis.

Bashir made a surprise visit to the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, where he held a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, the first such visit by an Arab leader since the outbreak of civil war there eight years ago.

Addressing a meeting of the National Congress Party (NCP) youth in Khartoum on Monday, Faisal said that foreign agenda led to the Syrian conflict and divided the Arab nation.

“The international and regional interferences in Syria require efforts to end the conflict, heal the wounds of Syria and to achieve Arab unity,” he further said.

The Sudanese official made his remarks after severe criticism of the visit in the social media by Syrian opponents and Arab Islamists. Some of them claimed that the al-Bashir was bribed by the Russian government, pointing to the Russian plane that transported him in his unannounced visit to Damascus.

In Moscow, the foreign ministry welcomed the visit of the Sudanese president to Damascus and expressed hopes that it would “contribute to the full return of Syria to the League of Arab States.”

Russia believes that Syria’s “quick return to the Arab family will help significantly in the process of the Syrian settlement in accordance with the original principles of international law and the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations,” further reads the statement issued on Monday.

(ST)