Sudan’s Bashir vows to continue efforts to end Gulf crisis
June 13, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – President Omer al-Bashir Tuesday has reiterated that his country steadily continues to activate diplomatic efforts to end the Gulf crisis as soon as possible.
Al-Bashir met Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi who is visiting Khartoum.
“The meeting stressed the need to activate solutions within the Arab House and to seek to defuse the Gulf crisis, which could weaken the Arab body and open the door to other crises if it continues,” said Sudan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hamid Mumtaz who attended the encounter.
President al-Bashir told the visiting Qatari official he would support the Kuwaiti initiative and affirmed his confidence in Arab leaders in finding a political solution through dialogue to end the crisis, Mumtaz further said.
Sudan, which has strong relations with Qatar, has joined the Saudi-led military coalition against the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen. Also, it cut diplomatic ties with Iran in solidarity with Riyadh after an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran in January 2016.
However, President al-Bashir is not at ease with this crisis as he is under pressure from Sudanese Islamists to manifest at least a sympathy for Doha which deployed significant efforts to end Darfur crisis and provided financial support to Khartoum during the past years.
The Sudanese official said the Qatari minister welcomed any solution based on dialogue and diplomatic solution.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt severed ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting Islamist terrorist groups and arch-foe Iran. But Doha vehemently denied the charges.
When the Gulf diplomatic crisis erupted on 5 June, Khartoum was the first to declare its support to the Kuwaiti mediation to end the rift.
The Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah up to now failed to bring the parties to the negotiating table or to broker a deal deescalating the tensions. But his efforts are supported by Arab countries and the international community.
Kuwait’s official news agency KUNA has reported on Tuesday that Qatar showed readiness to understand the concerns of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.
“(Kuwait) affirms the readiness of the brothers in Qatar to understand the reality of the qualms and concerns of their brothers and to heed the noble endeavours to enhance security and stability,” said Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah, according to KUNA.
(ST)