First UN Security Council meeting since 1973 outside New York dedicated for Sudan
The UN Security Council holds today and tomorrow in Nairobi a unique meeting which is the first of its kind outside New York since 1973 in which the general situation in Sudan will be discussed and the negotiations between the Sudanese government and the southern rebels and the issue of Darfur, with the aim of intensifying international pressure on Sudan, as well as other African issues.
The UN Security Council 15- member states will convene their meeting which is held for the fourth time within 50 years outside New York, according to arrangements carried out by the UN representative at the council John Danforth who arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday. Danforth, three years ago was the delegate of the US President George W. Bush administration to peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the southern rebels led by John Garang.
Both the Sudanese government and the southern rebels stressed that reaching a peace agreement between them is a expected soon. The spokesman for the rebels, Yasser Araman, said that Garang said on Tuesday to Bush that "it is a matter of days" starting from the date of resuming the talks expected on November 26. The spokesman for the Sudanese delegation to the talks Saeed al-Khatib said "I have the same opinion. I do not think that we do have problems that can not be solved within days or a week."
He added "we hope that the international community, especially the UN Security Council will help us reaching this goal with the resolution it will adopt" tomorrow, most expectedly.
The US President George W. Bush held on Tuesday separate phone talks with Garang and the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in order to pressure for reaching quickly a peace agreement. The White House announced that Bush made pressure on Garang and on Bashir in order to reach a peace agreement. The spokesman for the White House Scott McClellan said "it is urgent that the Sudanese government and the people's movement for the liberation of Sudan (rebels) will reach a comprehensive peace upon the resumption of negotiations by the end of the current month, November."
Acts of violence in Sudan, the humanitarian crisis and the peace process will be on top of the UN security council agenda. Today, the UN Security Council will listen to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and to representatives for the African Union, the Sudanese government and the rebels. The council will adopt a resolution proposing to Sudan the support and help of the international community under the condition of reaching a prompt peace agreement in the south.
Each of Garang and the Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Taha will talk in the Council's session and will sign a joint declaration in which they vow to reach a peace agreement before the end of the year, according to diplomatic sources in Nairobi.
For its part, the main rebel movement in Darfur, the Sudan's Liberation Movement, announced it will ask the UN Security Council in its meeting in Nairobi today "to take all measures in order to protect the people of Darfur, according to the international law."
Meantime, the official in the African Union, William Molokwani, said the rebels released 15 Sudanese soldiers and five policemen who were detained during incidents in Darfur and handed them over on Wednesday to the Union, which by its turn handed them over to the Sudanese authorities.
On the other hand, the chairman of the defense committee for activists of the People's Congress party which is led by Hassan al-Turabi Abdul Salaam al-Jazouli said yesterday that more than 20 of the party cadres were released during the holy month of Ramadan on the occasion of Eid al-Fiter holiday.