The talks were due to open yesterday evening but were put off until today after the arrival of some members of both delegations was delayed.
Qatar, under the umbrella of The Arab League, is sponsoring the preliminary talk that is expected to pave way for lasting peace in Sudan. The ‘Darfur Peace Talks’ between the Sudanese government and the JEM, that aims at resolving the Darfur’s crisis peacefully, will kick off at the Doha Sheraton today.
High-level officials representing Sudanese government and JEM will attend the conference. Envoys from Arab League, regional governments and Western countries have already arrived to attend the meeting.
A consultative meeting held here yesterday was attended by H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary-General, Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Djbrill Bassole, UN/AU Joint-Chief mediator for Darfur.
The participants reiterated their commitment to work together in extending their full support to the efforts being exerted by the UN/AU Joint Chief Mediator and the State of Qatar to find a solution to the Darfur crisis and to restore peace and stability. In a statement to the press, Al Mahmoud said that mediators comprising several experts and representatives of various agencies have formed several committees. Each committee will be in charge of a certain issue of conflict between the two parties.
“JEM is the only rebel group that is participating at the first round of the peace talks here. Other groups are expected to participate at the negotiations later,” said the minister.
