SECURITY COUNCIL PRESS STATEMENT ON DARFUR The following Security Council press statement on Darfur was delivered today by Council President Mutlaq Majed al-Qahtani ( Qatar):
The members of the Security Council welcomed the report of the visit of the United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, to the Sudan and his meetings with the Sudanese leadership in Khartoum, where he delivered a written message from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the President of the Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir.
In discussing this report, the members of the Security Council welcomed the letter of 23 December from President Al-Bashir of the Sudan, in which he reconfirmed his commitment to the implementation of the Addis Ababa and Abuja Agreements, in particular to bring about cessation of hostilities, to revitalise the political process and to allow the immediate implementation of the United Nations three-phased support plan to the African Union, culminating in the deployment of a hybrid United Nations-African Union force in Darfur.
The members of the Council underlined their willingness to continue their close cooperation with the African Union and to continue to give priority to this issue.
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For information media • not an official record
