Vice President of Sudan's Sovereign Council Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, held talks on Monday with the European Union Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, Annette Weber.
He called on all Sudanese parties to make “national concessions” to maintain the country's security and stability and renewed the military’s commitment to withdraw from the political scene and form a civilian-led government.
Hemedti underscored the importance of the EU’s support to the peace process in the country, especially with regard to security arrangements.
He urged Weber not to link the humanitarian and development aid to political developments in the country.
Weber, for her part, stressed that the EU is keen to encourage political and civil forces in Sudan to reach an agreement to complete the transitional period.
Meanwhile, the military members of the Sovereign Council, Lt. Gen Yasser al-Atta and General Shams al-Din Khabbashi, said the army is neither with nor against any of the proposed initiatives to resolve the political crisis. They called on political forces to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
The officials held separate meetings with UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan Robert Fairweather and UK Special Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa Sarah Montgomery at the presidential palace on Monday.
The British officials arrived in Khartoum on Sunday to hold talks with the Sudanese parties.
Their visit aims to convey the UK’s support to the Sudanese people as they seek to reach a settlement that leads to a political breakthrough and the formation of a framework for a comprehensive civilian-led transitional government.
Separately, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that a meeting including members of the Quartet initiative to resolve the Sudanese crisis was held at the headquarters of the US ambassador in Khartoum on Monday.
The initiative first included the US and Saudi Arabia and succeeded in bringing together the military and civil institutions in Sudan before the army’ sudden withdrawal from the political process.
Britain and the UAE later joined the US and the Kingdom, forming the quartet initiative.
The meeting was also attended by members of the international tripartite mechanism, which consists of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), as well as Sudan’s friends, and aims to find solutions to the one-year long stifling political crisis in the country.
