United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Sudan's General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday, urging the restoration of constitutional order and the transitional process following the military takeover, said a UN spokesperson.
"The Secretary-General reiterated his call for the release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other civilians arbitrarily detained in Sudan," the UN spokesperson said in a statement.
The UN special envoy for Sudan said talks had yielded the outline of a potential deal on a return to power-sharing, including restoration of the ousted premier, but it had to be agreed in "days not weeks" before both sides' positions harden.
The United Nations has been coordinating efforts to find a way out of the country's crisis following a coup by the military on Oct. 25 in which top civilian politicians were detained and Hamdok was placed under house arrest.
Disclosing the "contours" of a potential deal publicly for the first time, the envoy, Volker Perthes, said these included: the return of Hamdok to office, the release of detainees, the lifting of a state of emergency, as well as adjustments to some transitional institutions and a new technocratic cabinet.
Perthes, special representative of Guterres and head of the United Nations' Integrated Transition Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), indicated that time was of the essence.
"The longer you wait the more difficult it is to implement such an agreement and get the necessary buy in from the street and from the political forces," he said in an interview with Reuters.
"It will also become more difficult for the military, as pressures to appoint some government, whatever its credibility, will increase. And the positions of both sides would harden. We are speaking of days not of weeks," he added.
"Now the question is, are both sides willing to commit to that. Here we still have at least a few hiccups," Perthes told Reuters.
