foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour reiterated his rejection for external intervention in Sudan’s affairs and praised the role of the African Union mediation in this respect, while the leader of the opposition National Umma Party Sadiq al-Mahdi called on the African Union to support the involvement of the international community to achieve peace in the country.
In statements to the official news agency (SUNA) to explain Sudan’s foreign policy after his recent appointment as a head of the Sudanese diplomacy, Ghandour hailed the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and "its role to keep the Sudanese file away from foreign hands ".
He further explained that the AUHIP leader Thabo Mbeki "understands better than others the course of political events in the Sudan," stressing that "African issues must remain at the African House," SUNA reported.
The former South African president Mbeki is one of the defenders of the paradigm of ‘African solutions to African problems’ which rejects foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Africa, saying it eventually aims to serve neocolonialist agenda.
In January 2014, the Sudanese government launched an initiative for an inclusive national dialogue to end war and endorse a new permanent constitution, but it stipulated that the process should be held inside the country without any foreign participation.
However, Khartoum accepted that the AUHIP facilitates the process and organizes a pre-dialogue meeting at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa to discuss issues related to the process and its procedures.
After Khartoum refusal to participate in the preparatory meeting before the general elections of April 2015, the opposition and rebel groups denounced the position of the government and called for a new process to be initiated, this time, by the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) with the participation of the international community.
In a speech delivered Wednesday from Cairo where he resides since the signing of political agreement with the rebel groups in Paris in August 2014, al-Mahdi said the national dialogue was killed by its initiators who wanted to be both judge and jury and to refused to create a conducive environment .
The opposition leader added that AUPSC roadmap to facilitate the national dialogue was also killed by the tergiversation of the Sudanese government which has proven its lack of seriousness to achieve peace and reforms.
"The mediation mechanism, AUHIP, needs to be strengthened through new partners and to empower it to judge the actions of the parties to dialogue," he said.
The former prime minister also suggested that the African peace and security body takes a decision in this regard and requests the United Nations Security Council to endorse it under Chapter Seven.
On Tuesday; the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N) renewed its refusal to resume talks with the Sudanese government under the auspice of the mediation team led by president Mbeki, and called for new process.
The last round of talks between Khartoum government and the SPLM-N rebel in November 2014 meant to conclude a declaration of principles leading to stop war in the Two Areas, and to prepare for the national dialogue.
The government announced its readiness to resume discussions with the holdout opposition parties and rebel groups after Ramadan.
Also the Sudanese foreign minister who headed the government negotiating team met recently with the African Union representative in Khartoum and asked him to officially inform the African body of this decision.
