Arab League to hold crisis talks on Sudan

The Arab League said Saturday it would hold an extraordinary meeting at Sudan's request after reports prosecutors of the International Criminal Court may seek the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir.

The 22-member body received "an official from the Sudanese government and examined the latest developments in the situation between Sudan and the ICC," Hisham Yussef, Secretary General Amr Mussa's chief of staff, told reporters.Earlier Sudanese ambassador to Egypt Abdel Moneim Mabruk told the official MENA news agency that his country had made a request to the league secretary general to hold crisis talks.
The call followed reports ICC prosecutors will seek Bashir's arrest as they open a case covering crimes committed in Darfur over the last five years.ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced on Thursday that he would unveil a new case on Darfur and name suspects next Monday.

U. S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Friday confirmed newspaper reports that ICC prosecutors would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir.

It would mark the first-ever bid by the ICC, based in The Hague, to charge a sitting head of state.

The Sudanese government reacted angrily to the news with the state minister for foreign affairs Al-Samani al-Wasila telling AFP that any decision about the president could "destroy the peace process." Sudan rejects the court's jurisdiction and refuses to surrender two war crimes suspects already named.

There were fears that the move could trigger a military response by Sudanese forces or their proxies against U.N. and African Union peacekeepers.

On Tuesday, seven UN peacekeepers were killed and 22 were wounded in an ambush of a UN convoy in Darfur that some blamed on state-backed militia.