JEM leader denies meeting Sudanese official in London

October 8, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Justice and Equality Movement leader Gibril Ibrahim dismissed reports about a meeting with a presidential aide in the British capital London over the national dialogue.

Several newspapers in Khartoum Thursday published a report attributed to the semi-official media SMC saying that presidential assistant Jalal al-Dougair met recently with JEM leader in London within the government efforts to persuade the holdout groups to join the internal political process.

Reached by Sudan Tribune, Ibrahim denied the meeting saying he didn’t visit London since more than three years in July 2012.

“May be he met me in his nightmares,” he said adding “I did not meet al-Dougair and I will not meet him. What he has to meet him. ”

The presidential aide is the leader of a faction of the Democratic Unionist Party allied to the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) since long years.

Ibrahim reiterated his rejection to join the national dialogue conference which will kick off next Saturday saying it “is a stillborn process without any value”. He added that the dialogue is boycotted more than the (general) election (of last April)”.

The armed and political opposition forces say they will participate in the national dialogue process if the government commit itself to implement the confidence building measures and participate in the pre-dialogue meeting.

JEM leader said the best outcome of the national dialogue conference is to decide to attend the preparatory meeting which should be held at the African Union headquarters Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).

“This is the only outcome to save their face,” he concluded.

(ST)