Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has welcomed the agreement on the National Dialogue principles signed by the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), the National Umma Party (NUP) and representatives of the Dialogue's Steering Committee, in Addis Ababa on 4 September.

“The signing of the National Dialogue document by the opposition forces has restored hope for a comprehensive Sudanese dialogue process,” said Mustafa Osman Ismail, Political Secretary of the NCP, at a press event.

He added, “It has broken the barrier of mistrust between the Sudanese government and the SRF.”

This came after a meeting between the African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki and President Omar al Bashir.

“President Al Bashir guaranteed to Mbeki that representatives of the rebel movements are welcome to Khartoum to safely take part in the National Dialogue,” Ismail noted.

However, the NCP official also denounced the Paris Declaration, signed by the SRF and the NUP leaders in the French capital on 8 August. He considered the Declaration “a humiliation of the Sudanese government and the NCP, as it holds the regime responsible for the wars, the political violence, and the secession of South Sudan.”

In response to the statements by NCP’s Political Secretary, Minni Minawi, co-deputy chairman of the SRF, and leader of a faction of the Darfuri Sudan Liberation Movement, said that the Paris Declaration “indeed represents a condemnation of the regime and the ruling party.”

He stressed to Radio Dabanga that the SRF has been able to “break through the monopolist platform of the Doha negotiations.”

“The allied rebel movements have now direct contact with the mediators. This is a large step forward for the Sudanese people.”

“The Sudanese regime is now prepared to sit with the armed movements. It is not on the government or the NCP to decide where the negotiations will take place. They will have to attend the sessions in Addis Ababa,” he said.

Reporting by Radio Dabanga

File photo: Thabo Mbeki (C) with Malik Agar, chairman of the SRF, on his left at the signing ceremony of an agreement with the National Dialogue committee on 4 September in the Ethiopian capital