Sudan calls on Libya to issue apology over accusations
September 9, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese ambassador in Cairo and the permanent representative to the Arab League, Abdel-Haleem Abdel-Mahmood, revealed that Khartoum had asked Libya to retract a statement it issued last week and apologise for accusations levelled against Sudan.
It noted that this action by Sudan violates Libya’s sovereignty and constitutes an interference in its affairs, adding that they formally informed the Sudanese military attaché that he is persona non grata.
Sudan’s foreign ministry however asserted that the plane mentioned in the media that landed at Kufra airport carried and unloaded supplies for use by the joint Sudanese-Libyan border control forces.
Abdel-Mahmood said that Sudan, by virtue of its interest in the situation of Libya as a neighbor will still participate in the visit of a delegation of senior officials from countries in the region to Libya next week. Sudan will be represented by its foreign minister Ali Karti.
He reiterated Khartoum’s keenness on the security and stability of Libya, emphasizing that it is an integral part of Sudan’s Foreign policy based on the relations and fraternal ties between the two countries and the two peoples.
The ambassador reiterated that the plane was on a mission to provide the joint Sudanese-Libyan forces with supplies, food and ammunition in accordance with the agreement concluded between the two countries.
He added that the flight took place at the request of the commander of the joint forces, Colonel Suleiman Hamed, denying that the plane had landed at the Mitiga airport in Tripoli or that it had made an emergency landing in Kufra.
Mitiga is a military airport now used mainly for commercial flights after Tripoli’s main international airport was damaged by fighting between rival armed groups. It is under control of an alliance of factions challenging the government which has relocated to Tobruk in the far east to escape the violence.
Colonel Mohammed Hejazi, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army that is loyal to retired Libyan general Khalifa Heftar, said that investigations are underway into the landing of an aircraft loaded with weapons coming from Sudan at Mitiga airbase.
“This is not the first time, but the recent incident is in the process of being investigated and scrutinised. There is an intelligence war that emerged from under the cloak of Muslim Brotherhood,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Saturday.
He added that intelligence bodies in the states that are supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood were involved with funding arms shipments which coincided with news that Khartoum received Nouri Abusahmain, president of the previous session of the Libyan General National Congress (GNC) which was dominated by Islamists and is challenging the legitimacy of the elected parliament.
The London-based Al-Arab al-Youm newspaper quoted the commander of the air force in the pro-Heftar Libyan National Army, Brigadier Saqr Jeroshi as warning against a “hellish” scheme in which Sudan provides personnel and weapons, aimed at empowering the Muslim Brotherhood and its allied the Jihadist militias to control the eastern city of Benghazi.
“This scheme approached its final stages, where the Muslim Brotherhood has stepped up its actions in support of its militias that are armed with personnel and ammunitions from Sudan”, benefiting from close ties with the Sudanese government, which he described as a Muslim Brotherhood one.
He added that the army confirmed information that a Muslim Brotherhood figure by the name Ahmed Al-Zuway, who has a tribal links in Sudan, is overseeing the process of bringing in arms and personnel from Sudan to Kufra in cars and trucks.
“The process of the transfer of arms and personnel from Sudan to Libya has taken in the last period a remarkable development, as planes were observed in the skies of the Sahara, coming from Sudan, in an effort to overthrow the city of Benghazi, to which hundreds of extremist groups from Misrata and Derna are flowing, in an effort to control it in favour of extremist groups,” he said.
The GNC refused to stand down at the end of its term earlier this year and extended it and extended its mandate another year which prompted General Heftar to call for its dissolution and forming an interim government to oversee new elections.
Last May, pro-Heftar forces launched a major offensive against Islamist militias dubbed ‘Operation Dignity’.
Libya’s government and elected House of Representatives last month relocated to the remote eastern city of Tobruk after an armed group from the western city of Misrata seized the capital Tripoli and most government institutions.
Those now in control of Tripoli have set up a rival parliament and government that have not been recognised by the international community.
Libya has been plagued by political infighting, with government and parliament unable to control militias that have continued to defy state authority since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011.
(ST)
