UN, Qatari officials arrive in Paris to discuss solution in Darfur

ham

The Qatari delegation is led by State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, according to sources here.

Bassoule and Al-Mahmoud will meet Wednesday evening with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, having met earlier in the day with senior officials at the Elysee Palace.

Those talks involved a meeting with Jean-David Levitte, who is the Diplomatic Advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy, a strong supporter of Qatari efforts to put an end to the fighting in Sudans troubled Western province.

"This visit is part of the framework containing efforts of joint mediation and Qatari facilitation to restart the political process in Darfur," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It was noted here that a first phase of talks had allowed for the signature last February 17 of a "statement of intent" and confidence measures between the Sudanese government and one of the rebel movements known as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

But the JEM is only one of many such movements and the others have so far boycotted the Qatari and even UN efforts to get a political solution.

Officials here said that the Djbril and Al-Mahmoud talks "would be an opportunity to explore ways for a successful restarting of the political process in Darfur in order to arrive as quickly as possible at a political settlement to the conflict."

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *