| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Horn |
| Despite warrant, Egypt welcomes Sudanese president |
| 2009-03-26 |
| Egypt, one of the strongest US allies in the Middle East, welcomed Sudan's president on Wednesday despite an international warrant seeking his arrest on charges of war crimes in Darfur. Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's wanted leader, was making his first high-profile journey abroad since the warrant was issued March 4 by the International Criminal Court. He was emboldened by the 22-nation Arab League's decision not to act on the warrant, though three of its member countries are signatories to the court's founding treaty. Al-Bashir is also planning to attend an Arab summit in Qatar at the end of the month, though its prime minister says the country is under pressure not to host him. His visit to Egypt was another show of defiance by al-Bashir, who responded swiftly to the arrest warrant by expelling 13 international aid groups from Darfur, exposing hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the six-year conflict to the potential threat of greater humanitarian crisis. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received al-Bashir at Cairo's airport along with senior government ministers in a show of solidarity with the Sudanese leader. The two leaders discussed the search for a resolution to the Darfur conflict. Egypt is not a signatory to the ICC's founding treaty, and both it and the Arab League have backed al-Bashir, arguing that issuing the warrant would further destabilize the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "Killed while resisting arrest" works for me. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-03-26 11:43 |