More parties reject Egyptian dialogue initiative

KHARTOUM – January 20, 2023

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The mainstream Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC-Central Council) definitely refuses to participate in the Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue workshop which Egypt intends to organise in Cairo in February.

The FFC-CC alliance said in a statement yesterday that it received an invitation from the Egyptian government to participate in the workshop that will be held from February 1 to February 8.

They said that they consider the workshop as “a platform for the forces of the counter-revolution that are associated with the defunct regime [of Omar Al Bashir] and want to undermine the Sudanese popular efforts to restore the path to a civilian-led democracy”.

The political parties and civilian groups that signed the Framework Agreement with the military junta on December 5 last year, previously said they reject the Egyptian initiative for an inter-Sudanese dialogue platform to be held in Cairo.

“The dialogue process was agreed upon in advance and cannot be changed at the last moment,” an FFC spokesperson said earlier this month.

Sudanese Ba’ath Party

Yahya El Hussein, head of the Sudanese Ba’ath Party, a split-off of the Socialist Arab Ba’ath Party, also rejected the Egyptian initiative.

“We do not have any details about the initiative, and we have not been invited so far,” he told Radio Dabanga.

As for the ongoing political process, El Hussein said that “the agenda of the five conferences contradicts the programme previously prepared by the FFC-CC that included the agreed charter for restructuring the Sudanese state, the Declaration of Freedom and Change, and the Democratic Alternative document”.

He accused the AU-IGAD-UN Trilateral Mechanism and Sudan Quartet (USA, UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia) of “designing the conferences and preparing the recommendations in advance according to the plan drawn up for the Final Agreement in order to implement specific goals,” rather than involving other revolutionary parties that reject the Framework and Final Agreement.

The politician called for “a return to the founding platform for the forces of the revolution” and said that his party is preparing to organise a “general constitutional conference” to work on a new permanent constitution which will lead to general elections.

The Socialist Arab Ba’ath Party recently left the Forces for Freedom and Change altogether due to the fact that the majority of coalition parties signed the Framework Agreement, which the party believes “legitimises the October 2021 coup”.

JEM

Jibril Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Minister of Finance, renewed his rejection of the Framework Agreement in terms of methodology and content. 

Ibrahim said that the Framework Agreement neglects the issues of the displaced in the country.

He also affirmed his movement’s “rejection of external pressures and the imposition of foreign agendas to reach an agreement”.

Earlier this week, Volker Perthes,, the head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), expressed his optimism about the joining of the JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minawi, as it is in their interest to participate in a new government.