Sudan bucks nomination of ex-Egyptian official for Arab League SG

April 19, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has officially declared objection to the nomination of a former Egyptian official to succeed Amru Musa in the position of secretary-general of the Arab League, citing the candidate’s “hostile” attitude towards Sudan.

In an official letter submitted to the Arab League through Sudan’s ambassador in Egypt, the government said that its reservation over Mustafa El-Fiqy, who was a leading figure of Egypt’s deposed National Democratic Party, is predicated on his “hostile attitude” towards Sudan, as reported by the country’s official news Agency SUNA on Tuesday.

El-Fiqy, who chaired the foreign relations committee at the Egyptian parliament, last December made a surprisingly overt criticism of the current Sudanese government, saying it was the “worst” in the country’s history.

As quoted by the English Language Al-Ahram newspaper, El-Fiqy said it was known to him many years ago that Khartoum was working towards letting South Sudan, which voted earlier this year to secede in July, go away even before the 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, ending decades of north-south civil war.

El-Fiqy said that he was “extremely sorry that matters have reached the point they have in Sudan, where the very term referendum only appeared during this regime, and its expected result is separation, which will be met with separation in other parts, from Darfur to the east to Kordofan”

“Egypt is the only country that will pay the price of what happens in Sudan from separation threats, the damage to it will be more so than to Northern Sudan,” he added.

SUNA cited an anonymous government source as saying that El-Fiqy had been iterating “false accusations” that the Sudanese government had jeopardized the country’s unity and pushed the south to separate by seeking to execute “narrow religious agendas.”

The Sudanese source said that El-Fiqy had refused to apologize or retract his claims which he maintained during the sessions of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign relations committee, as published in December by Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper.

According to the source, Sudan has no negative position towards Egyptian nominees in general but was rather opposing the nomination of El-Fiqy in particular due to his “negative” stance towards Sudan.

Egyptian officials in the past have shyly blamed Bashir’s NCP party for the likely split of Sudan. Last February, Egyptian president reportedly criticized Khartoum for lacking the will to preserve the unity.

(ST)