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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Oct. - 3 Nov. 1999 Issue No. 453 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Oct. - 3 Nov. 1999 Issue No. 453
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Study Special Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'Here to stay'
By Dina EzzatPresident Hosni Mubarak may meet with visiting Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail later today to discuss joint Egyptian-Libyan efforts for reconciliation in Sudan. The talks will also review efforts to improve relations between Cairo and Khartoum.
This is the first time Mubarak has received a representative of the Khartoum regime in Cairo, except for the participation of the Sudanese president in the 1996 Cairo summit, since relations between the two countries soured in the early 1990s.
The anticipated meeting coincides with the all but overt US rejection of joint Egyptian-Libyan efforts to foster national reconciliation in Sudan. Last week, on an African tour, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that Washington supports only the initiative of the Inter-governmental Agency for Development (IGAD) and remains uninterested in promoting efforts such as that of Egypt and Libya.
The talks with Ismail follow Mubarak's meeting with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in Algeria last July on the fringe of the regular summit of the Organisation of African Unity, an encounter intended to boost efforts to improve bilateral ties.
"Improvement in bilateral relations would be of great help to the Egyptian efforts to work with Libya on promoting peace in Sudan," commented one senior Sudanese diplomat.
"This meeting is very indicative and its implications are clear -- working in favour of peace in Sudan and better bilateral ties," commented an Egyptian diplomatic source.
Cairo and Tripoli appear to be racing against time to encourage the regime in Khartoum and its southern and northern opposition to overcome differences in order to avoid the division of Sudan. "The closer this initiative gets to take off, the less the risk of division," commented a Sudanese official.
This week, in Cairo, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa pledged that, together with Libya, Egypt will continue to work on encouraging all concerned parties in Sudan to move towards reconciliation. Egypt and Sudan's foreign ministers both chose to play down Albright's earlier statement pledging US support exclusively to the IGAD initiative, stressing that the joint Egyptian-Libyan effort is not meant to undermine IGAD efforts but rather to complement them.
"The Egyptian-Libyan initiative is not meant to subtract from but rather to add to the IGAD initiative," said Moussa. And, according to Ismail: "The Egyptian-Libyan initiative is looking at the Sudanese problem from a holistic point of view... The IGAD initiative is focused on the problem of the south... There is no contradiction between the two initiatives... We will work on by co-ordinating the two initiatives."
Following Sunday's talks with Ismail, Moussa conferred for an hour with Kenyan President Daniel Arrap Moi, chair of the IGAD committee on Sudan. The two sides discussed the possible harmonisation of the two initiatives.
"We don't feel that Kenya is opposed [as such] to the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. It was agreed that both Egypt and Libya will be working more with the IGAD countries on co-ordinating efforts," commented one informed source.
On Monday, however, the Foreign Ministry of Eritrea, an IGAD member state, issued a statement criticising the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative and suggesting that the IGAD framework better provides an answer to the Sudanese problem.
Cairo did not seem to be particularly upset. "We never thought working on our joint initiative with Libya would be easy," said one Egyptian diplomat.
The initiative, even as it gets criticism or opposition, appears to be gaining legitimacy as an integral part of efforts to end the civil war in Sudan. And last week in Rome, during a meeting on Sudan of the IGAD Partners Forum, Egypt managed to get a serious reference to the joint initiative in the final declaration. Egypt will also hold more talks with Khartoum, and opposition groups, in an attempt to speed the momentum of the joint reconciliation initiative.
But the stumbling block for Egyptian efforts may well prove to be the US stance. Unlike other concerned countries, including the European states, the US is not calling for a total cease-fire between the government and the opposition. Washington's position is that an all out cease-fire should be conditional on reaching a political settlement between the southern opposition and the government, a stand that raises question marks over Washington's earlier assertions that it opposed southern secession.
Last week, in the Kenyan capital, Albright held talks with John Garang, the southern opposition leader who has repeatedly called for the independence of the south. Garang, whose representative signed the document endorsing the joint Egyptian-Libyan effort, has been showing an increasing reluctance to fully engage in the launching of the initiative. Moussa and Ismail, for their part, insist that Garang is not opposed to the joint initiative in principle, though he might have a few questions on specific points.
It seems that what Egypt needs to do is to talk more to the US. Meanwhile, the US special envoy on Sudan is expected to arrive in Cairo today for talks with senior Egyptian officials, including Moussa, who believes that the US envoy's visit might prove helpful.
According to Moussa: "The Egyptian-Libyan initiative is here to stay."
