Sudan opposition distances itself from Al Bashir’s remarks on the USA

Sudan’s opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) and the Minni Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM) have rejected President Omar Al Bashir's remarks to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in which he attacked the USA.

The PCP says it considers this “a new trend in the government policies that will cast its shadows on foreign policies and strategies”.

During a two-day state visit to Russia last week, Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir has asked Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to protect Sudan from “aggressive acts of the United States”. 

In a press statement on Sunday, the PCP said that Al Bashir's comments came in response to the conditions and dictations made by the US administration during a visit to Sudan by US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Sullivan, who visited Sudan this month to discuss bilateral relations called on the Sudan government for a comprehensive and definitive cessation of hostilities in South Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Darfur.

In their press statement, the PCP considered that “the statements of Al Bashir represent a new trend in the foreign policies of the government cast shadows on previous foreign policies and strategies in which a great effort had been made to cross into what represents a breakthrough and breaking of the isolation imposed on the country”.

‘Sudan subject to blackmail’

The Minni Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM) considered Al Bashir's comments as “a prelude to putting the country under an external mandate so that Al Bashir can protect himself from prosecution by the International Criminal Court”.

The movement said in a statement yesterday that “the regime's interference in the affairs of other countries and its support for terrorism have paved the way for the imposition of tutelage on Sudan's foreign policy that has made it subject to blackmail.”

The statement called on the international community to activate UN and Security Council resolutions, this along with calling on the Sudanese people “to topple the regime which has defamed and harmed the country's reputation”.