Egypt denies any contacts with Sudan Islamist leader

April 4, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The Egyptian government firmly denied reports that it is maintaining contacts with an Islamist opposition leader in Sudan.

This week it was reported in Sudanese newspapers that the Egyptian ambassador Afifi Abdel-Wahab met with leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan Al-Turabi following his release from detention.

But the Egyptian embassy issued a statement denying the reports saying the ambassador did not meet Turabi “neither before or after his detention”.

An Egyptian source told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily that Cairo contacts with any Islamists group in any part of the world “is a red line” but excluding the Hamas militant Islamist group in control of the Gaza strip.

Some newspapers in Khartoum attributed statements to Egyptian spy chief on a visit to Sudan saying that his government does not mind a visit by Turabi to Cairo.

Turabi was the ideological mastermind to the 1989 coup staged in Sudan by Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

In 1995 the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak survived an assassination attempt in the Ethiopian capital by militants allegedly backed by Sudan. At the time Egypt and Sudan appeared to be on the brink of war over the attempt on Mubarak’s life.

However after Bashir and Turabi split rank in 1999 the relations between the two countries quickly returned to normal.

Some observes pointed out that Egypt’s main worry over the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant against Bashir that his 2nd Vice President Ali Osman Taha would take over bringing hardline Islamists back to power.

Taha is the secretary general of the Islamic movement in Sudan and he was considered one of Turabi’s closest figures in the 90’s.

The 2nd Vice President was scheduled to visit Cairo last month but Bashir went instead and the reasons for the change were not known.

(ST)