Sudanese ruling party welcomes Machar’s visit to Khartoum
June 16, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – South Sudanese vice-president Riek Machar is expected to arrive in Khartoum on Tuesday as the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) welcomed the South Sudanese intitaive.
Official sources in the Sudanese capital told Sudan Tribune that Machar would probably arrive Tuesday in Khartoum for meetings with the first vice-president Ali Osman Taha and a number of Sudanese government officials.
Government officials in Juba did not give the date of the visit stressing that preparations are taking place to organise the visit, but suggested that he may travel in the middle of next week.
The south Sudanese cabinet decided in its weekly meeting of Friday to hold high level dialogue with the Sudanese government in order to defuse the tensions between the two sides within the framework of the signed agreement.
Machar was tasked to lead this delegations and to travel to Khartoum to meet Sudanese frist vice-president Taha as the two are supposed to chair a joint committee to discuss the implementation of the cooperation agreements.
NCP media secretary Yasir Youssef, for his part, stated on Sunday that the Sudan’s ruling party welcomes Machar’s visit to Khartoum for talks on the support for rebel groups.
Speaking following a regular meeting of the NCP political sector committee, Youssef said that Juba support to the rebel groups is the main difference between the two countries.
“Any mechanism conducive to stop this support is welcome, whether it comes through visits, dialogue or proposals, provided that it leads to stop this support,” he further said.
Yasir also said his party welcomes the proposals made by the head of the African Union mediation Thabo Mbeki aiming to investigate accusations of support to rebel groups the two parties trade.
On Sunday, Khartoum also confirmed reports that the south Sudanese oil continue to flow normally expressing hopes that this would push Juba government to deal seriously this time with its support too rebel groups.
Sudanese officials who believe that some circles in Juba continue to support Sudanese rebel groups expressed hopes different times that the Kiir take the necessary measures to fix this issue.
(ST)