Arab countries may be hesitant to receive Sudan president: report

March 8, 2009 (CAIRO) – A number of Arab countries are wary of “international embarrassment” if Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir attempts to visit them, Arab League officials told a newspaper today.

The London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted those unidentified officials described as “close to Sudan dossier” as saying that several Arab states expressed fears of being put in a position to host the Sudanese president particularly for regional summits.

This week the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture. The three-judge panel said it had insufficient grounds for genocide.

Bashir is expected to attend the annual Arab Summit to be held in the Qatari capital at the end of this month.

Qatar, which recently hosted round of talks between Darfur rebels and Khartoum, did not make any statement regarding receiving the Sudanese president for the summit.

Sudanese officials have said that Bashir intends to attend the summit once he receives an official invitation from Qatar brushing aside fears of being arrested there.

The Saudi Al-Watan daily newspaper cited the Sudanese information minister Al-Zahawi Malik as saying that his government has not received the invitation as of yet.

Malik said that this created an “ambiguity” over Bashir attendance stressing that the latter intends to be present at the summit.

But a Qatari foreign minister official told Al-Watan that his country will send a delegation to hand Bashir an official invitation.

Separately, unidentified Egyptian officials told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Sudan risks “Arab isolation” in light of their refusal to accept their proposal for an international conference that brings key world and regional players to agree on a common vision to tackle issues facing Sudan following the ICC decision.

But the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Ali Karti rejected any such conference saying it will “internationalize the Sudan and Darfur issues”.

“If there are certain parties that want to internationalize this issue Sudan will not accept it” Karti told the Qatar based Al-Jazeera television.

The Egyptian officials expressed fears that Sudan may be heading the same path of Iraq in the days prior to the US led invasion of Iraq and toppling the regime of late President Saddam Hussein.

The majority of Arab countries have expressed concern over the ICC move against Bashir without condemning it and urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend ICC proceedings against Bashir.

Saudi Arabia, a heavyweight country in the region, has maintained silence and did not issue a formal position on the ICC indictment.

Observers say that Sudan’s adamant rejection for Arab proposals particularly on internal proceedings against Darfur war crimes suspects, may wipe out official Arab sympathy with the East African nation in its ICC confrontation.

(ST)