Egypt and South Africa again said they supported a 12-month delay of the arrest of Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir for war crimes. The Sudanese leader is allegedly directly involved in crimes against humanity and genocide, according to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands. “We are both making efforts to find a solution and we are trying hard,” said visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at a joint press conference after holding talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki. “The case could perhaps be postponed for about 12 months during which something could happen to decrease the tension,” he was quoted by South African reports as saying during his first official visit to the country. Mbeki said El-Bashir’s indictment “does not help” efforts to move toward peace in Sudan, between the north and south as well as the troubled Darfur region in the Western part of the country. The United Nations Security Council was Monday divided over a proposal to suspend the ICC’s indictment of El-Bashir, which calls for the embattled leader’s arrest and trial.
