President Omar al-Bashir met with opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi and his former security chief Salah Gosh on Wednesday evening in the presence of his vice president Ali Osman Taha, according to reports from Khartoum.
Bashir broke fast at his residence with Turabi and his former security chief Salah Gosh, who was detained from November 2012 to June 2013 supposedly for plotting to overthrow the government.
The meeting of current and former NIF insiders was “the first of its kind since Ramadan in 1999,” the Sudan Tribune website reports, referring to a period of inner turmoil in the government, during which Bashir declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament.
The Decrees of the Fourth of Ramadan issued at that time were opposed by Turabi, who considered them unconstitutional and launched a breakaway faction which became the Popular Congress Party.
Sudan Tribune also reports that the president held several meetings over the last few days with Dr. Ghazi Salah al-Din, who lost his post as chairman of the NCP parliamentary caucus earlier this year.
The Tribune cited observers as saying the meeting between Bashir and Turabi could contribute to “break the ice that has accumulated in the relations between the two men,” noting also Bashir would possibly try to reconcile differences between Gosh and his deputy in the National Congress Party, Nafi Ali Nafi.
It was also reported that Turabi earlier met separately with Bashir and Taha in the Ma’mura neighborhood of Khartoum. The president and his deputy were seen to arrive and depart separately to offer condolences for the death Turabi’s brother Dr. Abdel Halim al-Turabi.
Photo: An undated image of Bashir and Turabi before their split in 1999.