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The Reform Now Movement (RNM) led by Ghazi Salah al-Din Attabani said its return to the government-led national dialogue is contingent upon implementation of its conditions.

Last January, the RNM suspended its participation in the national dialogue mechanism to protest the refusal of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to implement a number of measures related to the creation of a conducive environment for the process.

A senior official at the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan al-Turabi said that differences within the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) have presented the major obstacle to the national dialogue process.

The Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir has been received by senior government officials and hundreds of supporters upon his return from South Africa on Monday evening where he participated in the 25th African Union summit.

Bashir left South Africa few hours before judges at the High Court handed down a decision ordering his arrest.

He arrived in Pertoria Saturday, defying two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him for war crimes and genocide in Darfur region in March 2009 and July 2010.

The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an urgent decision on Saturday by which it asserted that South Africa is under the obligation to arrest and surrender Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir who has arrived on Saturday in Pretoria to attend the 25th ordinary session of the African Union (AU).

Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict. As a result his overseas travel has been restricted to friendly nations ever since.

Sudan’s opposition alliance of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) has harshly attacked the first presidential assistant and head of the organizational sector at the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), al-Hassan al-Merghani for belittling the opposition.

The Sudan Media Center (SMC), which has close links to the Sudan’s security services, on Tuesday, quoted al-Merghani as saying there is nothing left from the opposition alliance “but the name".

The son of the DUP’s leader also criticized the external moves of the NCF leaders, describing it as “desperate attempts”.

Security officers prevented opposition leaders from travelling to France today. They were invited to participate in the European Parliament hearing on Sudan in Strasbourg, scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

The passports of seven opposition leaders, including Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi and Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, co vice-presidents of the National Umma Party (NUP), Siddig Yousef, senior member of Sudanese Communist Party, and Fathi Nuri of the Baath Party, were taken from them at Khartoum Airport early this (Monday) morning.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir issued decrees on Saturday night naming ministers in his new cabinet formed after the official commencement of his new term this week.

The acting head of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Mohammed al-Hassan al-Mirghani entered the government as Bashir’s assistant to replace his brother Ja’afar who was largely out of the public eye.

The former agriculture minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid was also appointed as a new presidential assistant.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir issued a decree on Tuesday night dissolving the government and relieving his aides in preparation for the formation of the new cabinet following the beginning of his new term today.

Ibrahim Ghandour, top aide to Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir and head of Sudan’s negotiating team with the SPLM-N (Photo: AFP/Ashraf Shazly)

The decree did not mandate undersecretaries to run the ministries in the interim which suggested that the announcement of the new cabinet is imminent.