Egypt warns situation in Sudan ‘extremely alarming’
October 20, 2008 (CAIRO) – The Egyptian government today warned that the situation in Sudan is at a critical juncture with far reaching implications.
“There are many things in Sudan that are hard to describe as easy or unproblematic because situation in Khartoum is very complex” Zaki said.
The Egyptian diplomat said that his government senses “imminent danger” surrounding their southern neighbor if regional or international parties fail to perform their roles “with great accuracy”.
It is not clear what prompted the unprecedented statements by the Egyptian diplomat which come at a time when the Arab League is leading a regional effort for national reconciliation in Sudan.
The newspaper said it attempted to contact another Egyptian official who declined to comment saying that Cairo does not want “to step on the toes of other countries handling the issue of Sudan”.
Egypt has long enjoyed a heavy intelligence presence in Sudan and may be seeing signs of a bloody power struggle leading to the disintegration of its neighbor, particularly after president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in July.
On the other hand Cairo may be unhappy that their role in Sudan has been sidelined after Qatar was assigned the task of hosting a peace conference for Darfur.
The Qatari mediation comes after the failure of Libya to organize peace negotiations in October 2007, and the change of the two peace envoy who observers believed have failed to make any breakthrough.
(ST)