Defiant Bashir Travels to Cairo
25 Mar 09 | al Jazeera
Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has met his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo in a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Al-Bashir held talks with Hosni Mubarak and several other senior Egyptian political leaders on Wednesday at Cairo airport.
Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt’s foreign minister, said the presidents discussed the ICC’s arrest warrant for al-Bashir.
“There is an Egyptian, Arab and African stance that does not accept the court’s manner in dealing with the Sudanese president,” Abul Gheit told reporters after the meeting.
Al-Bashir later caught a return flight to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
He had risked arrest by leaving Sudan for his meeting with Mubarak, but Egypt, which has close ties with Khartoum, has called on the UN Security Council to suspend the ICC warrant.
Al-Bashir’s visit to Cairo is his second foreign trip since the ICC indictment. He visited Eritrea on Monday. >>>
