Eritrean, Sudanese presidents’ meeting in Tripoli “routine”: Asmara
ASMARA, May 17 (AFP) — Eritrea on Tuesday described as “routine” the first face-to-face encounter between President Issaias Aferworki and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-bashir at the heads of state summit in the Libyan capital.
The two leaders met at the Tripoli summit that was aimed restoring stability in war-ravaged Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
Eritrean presidential cabinet director Yemane Gebremeskel said in Asmara that the two presidents “have not met for almost three years” and that the meeting was “is part of a normal routine.”
Despite numerous accusations and counter-accusations from the two countries of supporting opposition groups in order to destabilise the other’s regime, Yemane said Asmara is never to blame for the frosty ties between the two African nations.
“We do not have bilateral problems with Sudan… The rhetoric was mainly from Khartoum, they levelled false accusations,” he added.
“Our relations had its highs and lows, but right now we have diplomatic ties, they have an embassy in Asmara and we have one in Khartum,” said Yemane, explaining that the two countries renewed the ties in 1997.
“We severed our diplomatic ties in 1994 due to a long history of Sudan’s training of Jihad groups to infiltrate into Eritrea, but we renewed them in 1997,” he said.
However, Yemane maintained that the Tripoli meeting was neither the beginning of normalisations of relations nor was it the breaking of new ground and added that Eritrea had good relations with the Sudan and its opposition groups, most of which have offices in Asmara.
“There are no serious problems with the Sudanese government, we do not have border problems with them,” he added.
“If the politics of the National Islamic Front — Sudan’s ruling party — is changing, that is a positive thing for Sudan and the region,” he said.
Strained relations between the neighbouring states worsened considerably in 2002, when Khartoum accused Asmara of supporting an offensive by Sudanese rebels on its territory.
The Tripoli summit wrapped up Tuesday with an agreement to resume talks between rebels and Khartoum on May 30.