Addressing a press conference at the Emiri Diwan, where the signing ceremony took place, HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani expressed his optimism about the possibility of reaching a peace agreement between the parties to the conflict in Darfur.
“The two parties are determined to end the conflict. This would be an important turning point in Sudan and Darfur. I hope this accord will help them to start immediately the second phase of talks as the two parties have good intentions,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim said.
However, the prime minister stressed that both Sudan and Chad should solve their differences first, while revealing that “Qatar and Libya seek to achieve something in this regard”.
“It is important that Sudan and Chad should reach an accord. We and our brothers in Libya are making efforts. We wish to reach something soon as this will make the peace process easier and help solve the conflict in Darfur,” he said.
The first round of talks, which Qatar hosted for a week between delegates of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese government, was part of the Qatar-led UN and AU initiative to bring peace to the war-ravaged Darfur.
According to the declaration, the two parties pledged to give peaceful means a “strategic priority to settle the conflict in Darfur”.
They agreed to take the required measures to create “an opportune environment to achieve a lasting settlement”, including the halting of “inconvenience to the displaced and ensuring the flow of relief aid”.
They committed themselves to prisoners swap and the release of those who were detained due to the dispute.
The declaration assigned both Qatar and the joint UN-AU mediator Djibril Bassole to follow up the issue of the release of the detainees.
They agreed to work for signing a framework agreement, which will lead to ending the hostilities.
Representatives from the two parties will stay in Doha to prepare a framework agreement for the final status negotiations.
JEM’s leader Khalil Ibrahim announced the release of a number of prisoners, saying that “this is a gesture of good intention on the part of his movement”.
“We have a true will to reach a comprehensive and just solution to end this war so that this can be the last war in Sudan,” Ibrahim said.
Dr Nafi Ali Nafi, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir’s assistant and the head of the government delegation, described the accord as a “blessed step” on the way to peace.
“We agreed to meet soon to take another step. There are no sticking points and neither of us has any preconditions to enter the peace process,” he said.
Both Khalil and Nafi hailed the mediatory efforts of Qatar to broker peace in Darfur, while appealing to it to continue the efforts.
The UN-AU joint mediator Bassole also expressed his appreciation for Qatar’s mediatory role.
The signing ceremony was attended by a number of the heads of the diplomatic missions, including US Ambas-sador Joseph LeBaron and Egypt’s ambassador Abdul Aziz Dawood.
The current round of talks, which began in Doha last week, is the first peace contacts between the two parties since 2007.
The Sudanese government and the Justice and Equality Movement praised HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s “generous sponsorship of the Doha talks which resulted in the signing of the agreement”. They agreed that Doha would be the venue for future talks between the two sides.
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, British Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, welcomed the Doha deal.
“I applaud the vital contribution of the Government of Qatar and the leadership of Joint Chief Mediator Djibrill Bassole that led to this agreement,” he said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the Doha “agreement of goodwill and confidence-building … represents a constructive step in the ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful conclusion to this long-running conflict”.
Describing the Doha accord as “potentially a modest first step” toward peace, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice cautioned that it “is not itself a cessation of hostilities or ceasefire agreement”.
