Darfur rebels hold meeting in Cairo to coordinate positions

September 29, 2007 (CAIRO) — Darfur rebel groups coordinated here for a unified stance before talks with the government to be held in Libya next month, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported Saturday.

The negotiations in Tripoli, Libya is meant to find answers to issues which were not resolved by the Abuja deal on Darfur peace, MENA quoted Ahmed Hussein, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesperson, as saying.

Hussein noted that the crisis in Darfur could not be solved without the solution to all other problems in Sudan.

He highlighted the Tripoli talks as a stop that the JEM cannot possibly miss, expressing belief that negotiations there could be positive.

The JEM urged all armed groups in Darfur to take part in the Tripoli talks with the government, he said.

Hussein started on a visit to Egypt Friday for talks with the Sudanese opposition officials living in Egypt.

On Friday in a statement before the UN General Assembly in New York, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Egypt welcomes the international community’s concern with the latest developments in the Sudanese region and attempts to bring closer the conflicting sides in cooperation with regional and international parties.

(Xinhua)