Sudan seeks Arab support in Darfur crisis
March 19, 2007 (CAIRO) — Sudan government seems seeking Arab support during the upcoming Arab League Summit to be held in the Saudi capital Riyadh on March 28.
Sudanese State Minister at the Foreign Ministry, Ali Karti, discussed with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa in Cairo files to be presented before the Arab summit in Riyadh, top of them Darfur issue., the state-run SUNA reported.
Sudan is expected to request the adoption of a resolution by the Arab Summit to support Khartoum on the two question of Darfur force and the rejection of ICC jurisdiction.
Sudan is under huge international pressures to accept the deployment of more than twenty thousand peacekeepers besides, the underequipped AU forces. Also, the International Criminal Court prosecutor filled charges against two Sudanese one of them a state minister.
Al-Bashir has rejected any significant U.N. deployment as a violation of sovereignty. He further said in a letter sent to the UN Secretary General that the deployment of this force is opposed to the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May 2006.
The secretary-general of the Arab League pointed out in a press statement that he discussed with Karti the efforts being exerted by the Arab League for convening the coming Arab summit in Riyadh and the issues to be tabled before it, specially the situation in Darfur.
He further added that he would meet UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and member states in the UN Security Council to discuss Darfur issue in the framework of Abuja and Addis Ababa agreements, SUNA said.
On the role of the Arab League concerning the issue of Sudan and the International Criminal Court, Karti said the Arab League supports the stance of Sudan rejecting trying any Sudanese national outside Sudan, stressing that Sudan is not a party to the ICC and that the case is political and not legal.
(ST)