Paris conference expected to focus on Darfur peace process – Egypt

June 23, 2007 (CAIRO) — Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit Saturday expressed hope that an upcoming meeting on Darfur issue to be held in Paris on Monday would achieve an overall peace agreement, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

Sudan’s unconditional approval of the deployment of a hybrid UN-AU (African Union) peacekeeping force in western Sudanese region of Darfur brought new chances to give priority to the political process, Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying.

The Egyptian top diplomat is expecting that the Paris meeting would lead to a candid discussion to achieve international and regional agreement on means to solve the Darfur crisis.

The international community shares Egypt’s view on how to revive the political process in Darfur and urge the holdouts of Darfur Peace Agreement, reached in the Nigerian capital of Abuja in 2006 between the Sudanese government and a main rebel faction, to join the peace agreement, Aboul Gheit added.

The objective of the Paris meeting is to urge the international community to make the AU and the UN in Darfur exert their efforts to provide people in Darfur with humanitarian aid, according to the French foreign ministry.

A joint statement was issued on June 12 in Addis Ababa of Ethiopia by the AU, the UN and Sudan, saying that Khartoum had accepted the deployment of the hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur, which was seen as the latest positive gesture in solving the Darfur issue.

(Xinhua)