Sudanese MPs obtain U.S. visa to attend world speakers conference: official
August 29, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Speaker of the National Assembly and his parliamentary delegation have got their visas for the United States to attend the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament from next Monday.
The Conference will be held from Monday 31 August to Wednesday, 2 September 2015 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It is convened by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
A member of the Sudanese parliament from the ruling National Congress Party Mohamed al-Hassan al-Amin, on Friday complained that there was a delay in their visa, pointing that the U.S embassy in Khartoum told them that their application was under process in Washington.
However the head of external relations committee at the National Assembly Mohamed Mustafa al-Daw confirmed on Saturday that the eight members of the Sudanese delegation have obtained their visas denying reports that Washington declined to issue it.
Daw said the U.S. embassy in Khartoum attributed the delay in the visa issuance to the complicated procedures used by the American authorities. He said there is a positive change in the bilateral relations and ruled out that there was a political decision to deny them the visa.
The parliamentary official was alluding to the presence since last Tuesday of the U.S. special envoy Donald Booth in Khartoum where he is conducting discussions with the Sudanese officials on bilateral relations.
He said that the Sudanese Parliamentary delegation will leave for the United States on Saturday evening.
The delegation is headed by the speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omer, and includes former speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher, deputy speaker of the State Council Ibrahim Habani, three other MPs and administrative staff members.
The world speakers conference will be will be opened by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) president Saber Chowdhury.
The three-day conference is expected to adopt a draft declaration, titled “Placing democracy at the service of peace and sustainable development: Building the world the people want”.
The conference will call to deploy greater efforts “in solving conflicts through political dialogue and negotiations, with full respect for international law”
SST)