Emir of Qatar receives message from Sudan’s al-Bashir

February 19, 2018 (KHARTOUM) The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on Monday sent a written letter to Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

According to the Qatari news agency QNA, the message was delivered by the Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Mustafa Osman Ismail who met with the Qatari leader at his office in Doha.

The contents of the letter were not revealed except to say that it pertained to bilateral ties and ways of developing and enhancing them.

Last October, al-Bashir visited Doha within a Gulf tour that also took him to Riyadh and Kuwait.

At the time, observers spoke about a possible mediation he is undertaking to settle the crisis between Qatar and a Saudi-led alliance including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Qatar has been one of the few countries where Sudan enjoys relatively warm relations with. For years the rich Arab Gulf state has hosted peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups which eventually resulted in the signing of a peace accord in 2011.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt severed ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting Islamist terrorist groups and arch-foe Iran. But Doha vehemently denies the charges.

Sudan is among the Arab states that refused to take part in the ongoing diplomatic crisis and declared its support for the Kuwaiti efforts to settle the rift.

(ST)