Sudan’s Bashir Secretly Visits Damascus to Revive Ties

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir made a surprise visit to Damascus on Sunday and met with Syria Regime President Bashar al-Assad, in a sign of revival of bilateral relations since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.

Assad received the Sudanese president at Damascus airport - according to SANA, the official Syrian news agency - and accompanied him to the People’s Palace where discussions touched on “bilateral relations and developments in Syria and the region.”

The news agency noted that the two officials stressed that circumstances and crises in many Arab countries “necessitate new approaches to Arab action based on respect for the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.”

“Developments in the region, especially in Arab countries, emphasize the need to invest all energies and efforts in order to serve Arab issues and confront schemes that target countries and peoples of the region,” SANA quoted the two officials as saying.

Bashir said he hoped Syria would recover its important role in the region as soon as possible. He also affirmed Sudan’s readiness to provide all that it could to support Syria’s territorial integrity.

Assad, for his part, thanked the Sudanese president for his visit, asserting that it would give strong momentum for restoring relations between the two countries “to the way it was before the war on Syria,” according to the Syrian news agency.

In Khartoum, State Minister in the Foreign Affairs Ministry Osama Faisal said in a brief statement at the airport upon Al-Bashir’s return from Damascus that the two presidents “agreed to find new approaches to Arab action based on respect for the sovereignty of States and non-interference in their internal affairs.”

Earlier on Sunday, the Sudanese presidential press sent an urgent call to journalists and correspondents to come to the airport and informed them that Bashir would return from a “secret” visit.