FUTURE PLANS: Sudanese leaders say that Egypt can still play an important role in ending the Sudanese conflict and repairing post-war Sudan, reports Soha Abdelaty . President Hosni Mubarak met with Sudan's President Omar Al- Bashir on Tuesday to discuss regional affairs as well as the ongoing peace process between Khartoum and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
A day earlier, Mubarak met with SPLM leader John Garang, who had held talks with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Mubarak's Chief Political Advisor Osama El-Baz on Sunday. Garang told reporters that Egypt has strong relations with both Khartoum and the SPLM and that by supporting reconstruction efforts in the southern region, it can "persuade southerners to vote for unity during the referendum" after the interim period.
Garang also insisted that Egypt was not "marginalised" when the US took over the reins of the peace process in Sudan, brokering its own road to peace and undermining the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. The Egyptian-Libyan initiative was not rejected, he said, but there were issues that "were not resolved". Garang reiterated that the SPLM supports Sudanese unity. "We have consistently said one thing: we stand for the unity of Sudan, but a unity on a new basis, not unity against the paradigm which we rebelled against," he noted. "A Sudan that belongs to all, irrespective of religious, ethnic or racial backgrounds."
Cairo, too, wants to see an undivided Sudan. "Unity has to guarantee the same rights to all the sons of Sudan and that they all enjoy the wealth of their country," Maher said, adding that Egypt intends to play a role in the transitional period. "We agreed to stay in touch and to work together so as to ensure that the choice of the Sudanese people will be that of unity," he added. However, Cairo's role mainly will be in post-conflict Sudan. Hence, Egypt is unlikely to host any peace talks.
