The Arab League announced on Saturday that its foreign ministers in an emergency meeting agreed on a plan to defuse the crisis between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC), but said details of the plan would be revealed in the next days.
Speaking after the seven-hour meeting, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa said that a plan had been agreed to solve the crisis that “could be really destabilizing.”
The crisis erupted when ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court on Monday in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
DETAILS
Mussa said that details of the plan would be disclosed after his scheduled talks with al-Bashir yesterday in Khartoum and consultations with the African Union, where Sudan is a member.
“We will announce what we have agreed after the Khartoum talks on Sunday or in the next days,” Mussa told reporters.
In their meeting on Saturday in the Arab League’s Cairo headquarters, the foreign ministers discussed the legal and political aspects of the ICC move.
The ICC prosecutor accused al-Bashir of waging a campaign of genocide against three Darfur tribes that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands and displaced about 2.5 million people from their homes in the western Sudanese province.
The ICC is expected to rule in October or November on whether to issue the warrant.
“We have three months before a decision is taken by the court. We have to move fast in consultation with the African Union and Sudan,” Mussa said.
Arab countries disagree with the ICC move and see it as “imbalanced,” he said.
“Ocampo’s decision is not balanced as it does not take into consideration violations committed by rebel movements in Darfur,” he said.
Mussa said the crisis would not be solved by screaming or condemnations, in reference to the emotional rhetoric adopted by al-Bashir’s regime and demonstrations staged in Khartoum in response to the ICC move.
SECURITY COUNCIL
Earlier, Arab diplomats close to the foreign ministers said that the Arab League ministers were expected to call on the UN Security Council to halt the ICC move for a year, in order to give the various parties to the Darfur conflict more time to reach a solution.
It was the Security Council that referred the Darfur file to the ICC and it has the power to halt the court move, the diplomats said.
The Security Council will have a role that will come in time after various moves are undertaken in consultation between the Arab League, the African Union and Sudan, Mussa said. He did not disclose the nature of those moves.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese