In a rare, high-profile visit to the West, the Sudanese president on Friday met the pope and the Italian prime minister, and offered to declare a ceasefire with Darfur rebels to coincide with the start of UN-backed peace talks next month.
After a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and President Omar al-Bashir, the Vatican expressed hope that the talks in Libya would succeed and put an end to the suffering in Darfur.
Al-Bashir told reporters after his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that he was offering a ceasefire linked to the start of talks on Oct. 27 in Libya to "create a positive climate."
"We hope that the negotiations in Tripoli will be the last ones and that they will bring definitive peace," al-Bashir said.
A top rebel leader, Abdulwahid Elnur, of the Sudan Liberation Movement, has said negotiations should not start before a ceasefire and before the arrival of a UN-African Union peacekeeping force. UN officials have said troops could start deploying next month.
In a telephone call from Paris on Friday, Elnur again rejected the Libya talks, expressing skepticism about al-Bashir's truce offer.
"How many ceasefires is al-Bashir going to offer?" Elnur said, listing nearly a dozen he said Sudan's forces violated.
But observers say some were also breached by Darfur rebels.
"No one on earth will make me go" to Libya, Elnur said, adding his movement wanted to see the UN deployed in Darfur and the janjaweed disarmed before agreeing to negotiations.
Asked at a late-night news conference about the rebels' refusal to participate in the peace talks, al-Bashir replied, "We think there are a number of factions not ready to obtain peace."
"They are enjoying their stay in these luxurious hotels" in Europe, the president said, adding that he had asked both the pope and Prodi to put pressure on France to make the rebel leaders join in the talks.
Al-Bashir said he asked Prodi to encourage European countries hosting rebel leaders to pressure them to take part in the talks.
Prodi welcomed al-Bashir's offer of a ceasefire as an "important signal."
While the pope in the past has denounced the humanitarian disaster in Darfur as a "horror," the Vatican chose an upbeat tone to describe Benedict's 25-minute talks with the Sudanese president in the papal summer palace in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.
Discussions were focused on Darfur, the Vatican said.
"Very positive views were expressed concerning fresh peace negotiations," it said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS