Beshir to sponsor national dialogue

KHARTOUM, Aug 6 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is to call an all-party meeting to discuss various national issues, an opponent said Wednesday.

Opposition Modern Forces Movement leader Al-Haj Warraq said he was on a four-member committee of different parties that handed the president a memorandum prepared by various political parties urging him to sponsor an all-party dialogue.

Warraq quoted Beshir as telling the committee that his government would not relinquish the country’s unity or the national basics of freedom and peaceful devolution of power.

He said Beshir had described disagreements among the political parties as “a minor problem that can be overcome through dialogue”.

The four-member commitee was made up of Warraq, Muslim Brotherhood’s Isam Ahmed al-Beshir, National Forces for Development’s leader Isam Siddeiq (an Islamist) and ruling National Congress Deputy Secretary General Al-Shaei Ahmed Mohamed.

Warraq said Beshir has pledged to “sponsor personally” the proposed dialogue and to call “all ruling and opposition parties to a plenary meeting to debate various issues.”