Al-Turabi to visit Qandahar, meet with Bin Laden

Well-informed Afghan sources told the London- based al-Hayat daily that preparations are underway in the city of of Qandahar, the main center of the Taleban movement, to receive former Sudanese Parliamentary Speaker Hassan al-Turabi who is expected to arrive there in a visit during which he will meet with Osama Bin Laden.

The sources added that al-Turabi, who will head to Afghanistan on board a Sudanese plane, will concentrate on his talks with Bin Laden and leaders of the Taleban on means of coordination in confrontation of Washington, "the common enemy."

Al-Turabi will also extend an invitation to Bin Laden to visit Sudan in which the exiled Saudi used to live in before he left for Afghanistan. Observers found out that al-Turabi's visit to Afghanistan will be the first contact of its kind on this level between the Taleban and Sudanese officials who were previously committing themselves to supporting the anti-movement's alliance led by the toppled Afghan President Burhan Eddine Rabbani.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had backed Iran in its recent conflict with the Taleban. He denounced the killing of the Iranian diplomats by Taleban fighters when they broke into Mazar al-Sharif, the capital of northern Afghanistan.

Sudanese Parliamentarians on Wednesday reelected al-Turabi as speaker of the Sudanese National Council, just 48 hours after he announced his resignation from this post.

Al-Turabi had justified his resignation by citing a need to dedicate his time to the leadership of the National Conference -- the ruling political organization -- which will be converted to a party during January 1999 according to the new law which was approved in November this year and permitted party pluralism.

A Sudanese parliamentary source said that the parliament members immediately refused the resignation of al-Turabi and selected him once again as the sole candidate for the presidency of the council.