Sudan’s Beshir urges lifting of boycott on Palestinians

Feb 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Saturday has called for sanctions on the Hamas-led Palestinian government to be lifted after he met Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal.

“The president hopes for a regional and international agreement which respects the will of the Palestinians, and allows for dealing with their unity government and breaking the embargo in order to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people,” the official SUNA news agency said.

Meshaal was in Khartoum to brief Beshir — who currently holds the chairmanship of the Arab summit — on a deal signed in Mecca earlier this month between president Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement to form a Palestinian unity government.

The diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East — Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations — said on Wednesday that they would await the formation of the new government before deciding whether to lift sanctions imposed after Hamas won elections in January 2006 and took control of the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas has yet to agree to the West’s conditions for lifting the boycott, namely recognising Israel, renouncing violence and honouring past agreements with the Jewish state.

During his brief Sudan visit, Meshaal also met with Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, the vice president of Beshir’s ruling National Congress party.

(AFP)