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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Nile Valley solidarity
By Dina EzzatEGYPT and Sudan are inching closer together as Cairo offers stronger support for the Sudanese president in his struggle with Hassan Al-Turabi. Dina Ezzat reports
Egyptian officials are not only rallying Arab, regional and international support for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir but are trying to strengthen his position inside Sudan by acting to reconcile him with the opposition.
In a strong show of solidarity with Al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa paid a one-day visit to Khartoum on Tuesday, the first by an Egyptian foreign minister to Sudan in 10 years. "Relations are being normalised between the two countries. Egypt's ambassador to Khartoum will be sent shortly, possibly within the coming days. The Sudanese president needs all the support he can get from us," commented an Egyptian diplomat.
In his talks with Al-Bashir, Moussa, who was given a warm welcome in Khartoum, affirmed the determination of President Hosni Mubarak to continue to support the president in his efforts to take Sudan "back to the right track after years of wrong policies" that have heightened tensions between the two countries, he said.
Cairo was supportive of measures taken by the Sudanese president last month to isolate Hasan Al-Turabi, speaker of the Sudanese parliament and the power behind Sudan's Islamist ideology. "Al-Turabi always acted as if he had something against Egypt," commented one official source. "He almost made it a point to wreck the traditional relations between the two countries. Egypt deems it unacceptable for anyone to ruin its relations with Sudan."
Cairo has not shown much enthusiasm for recent Qatari efforts to bring Al-Turabi back to the fore. In Cairo on Monday night, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jassim was told by President Mubarak that he cannot count on Egypt to back the initiative. "We have nothing to do with this matter," said Moussa. "Egypt deals only with the Sudanese state as represented by the Sudanese president."
While in Khartoum Moussa met with his Libyan and Sudanese counterparts, Omar Al-Montasser and Mustafa Othman Ismail, to push the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative to reconcile the Sudanese government with its northern and southern opposition. Diplomatic sources predicted that an all-embracing Sudanese reconciliation conference will be held in Cairo shortly. Following this, many Sudanese opposition figures are expected to return to Khartoum to support Al-Bashir in his struggle with Al-Turabi, which could last for quite some time.
Said Moussa: Egypt wants to help in building "a new, strong, democratic and free Sudan."
