Region | Sudan
Arab foreign ministers hold crisis talks on Sudan
Algeria urged other Arab nations on Saturday to press the United Nations Security Council to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir.
- Agencies
- Published: 22:48 July 19, 2008
Cairo: Algeria urged other Arab nations on Saturday to press the United Nations Security Council to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir.
The ICC's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has asked the ICC for a warrant for Bashir on suspicion of masterminding crimes against humanity in his country's troubled Darfur region.
"What the prosecutor of the court has done is a dangerous precedent," Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told his Arab counterparts, holding an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss the ICC move against Bashir.
"We have (to take) ... a strong stance in solidarity with our brothers in Sudan and move effectively with regional and international organisations and the ... states in the Security Council to immediately reconsider this demand by the prosecutor," he said, according to advance extracts of his speech.
Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssef said at the opening of the one-day meeting that the 10 charges brought against Al Bashir at the Netherlands-based court will have dangerous repercussions for the entire region.
´The indictment is a dangerous precedent in dealing with heads of state. It will have dangerous repercussions, not only on Sudan but on the whole region," said Youssef, who is chairing the meeting convened by the 22-member body to discuss the charges.
Juts before the meeting convened, Yemen's lower house of parliament condemned the charges against Al Bashir as legally groundless.
A resolution passed by the 301-seat Yemeni Assembly of Representatives dismissed them as a "complete falsehood and an infringement on Sudan's internal affairs."
It added that the charges were "part of a plot targeting Arab and Muslim nations." The perception that the charges are politically motivated has been expressed by other Arab officials.
In his opening statement, Youssef criticized what he branded "the double standards" of the international community, saying that "the world watches Palestinian suffering without moving" to end it.
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