Emir of Qatar to visit Sudan eyeing bigger role in mediation

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani is to visit Sudan in July in response to an invitation by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's Foreign Minister announced Friday.

Al-Bashir on Friday concluded a two-day visit to the Qatari capital of Doha.

"President al-Bashir invited the Emir of Qatar to visit Sudan to attend a celebration on completion of the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD)," Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters in Khartoum Friday.

"The Qatari Emir accepted the invitation and promised to visit Sudan next July," he added.

Ghandour said the talks between al-Bashir and the Qatari Emir reviewed the bilateral ties and how to develop and strengthen them further together with coordinating the two countries stances regarding regional and international issues.

The DDPD, signed via a Qatari mediation in 2011, has elapsed, where the Sudanese government has officially announced the dissolve of the Darfur Regional Authority after the implementation of the last item of the deal which was the conduction of the Darfur administrative status referendum last April.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction as well as the SLM/Minni Minnawi faction all rejected the DDPD, claiming it did not meet the demands of Darfur's population.

The rebel JEM and SLM have earlier asked Qatar to play a bigger role in the mediation file with the Sudanese government via joining the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), led by Thabo Mbeki, to narrow the differences between the rivals.

However, the Sudanese government rejected the armed groups' proposal which calls for merging the Qatari mediation with the African Union Mediation. Endit