Bashir now meets foe Turabi over ‘dialogue’

Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir met at the weekend with Hassan Al-Turabi, leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) for the first time since the political falling out between them in 1999 which led to the split of the ruling party.

President Bashir and Mr Turabi agreed to accelerate the preparation for the holding of the national dialogue with the participation of all the political and social components of the country.

The meeting which took place with the presence of the former vice-president Ali Osman Taha and former presidential aide Nafei Ali Nafei discussed the presidential initiative of January 27 aiming to hold national dialogue in the country to discuss constitutional reforms and ways to end armed conflict in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Speaking to the press following the meeting, the National Congress Party (NCP) political secretary Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters that the meeting comes within the framework of the consultations conducted by President Bashir with Sudanese political forces to activate the National Dialogue Initiative, launched last January.

“The meeting reaffirmed the need to begin the dialogue as soon as possible. It was also agreed to not exclude any political force from this dialogue”, Mr Ismail said. (Sudan Tribune)
Also the two delegations “reiterated that the dialogue should be owned by the political forces that will participate in it. Therefore they (participants) will determine its roof, they will determine its topics, they will determine its timetable and mechanisms”, he further stressed.