African media is reporting that the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood held a meeting in Cairo with members of Hassan Turabi’s Popular Congress party ahead of visit to Sudan where Mohammed Badie is expected to meet with Turabi himself. According to a report at all Africa.com:
Khartoum — A delegation from Sudan’s Popular Congress Party (PCP) held a rare meeting yesterday in Cairo with the head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Badie. The meeting is expected to be followed by a summit between Badie and PCP leader Hassan Al-Turabi though a date and place has not been specified yet. Al-Mahboub Abdel-Salam, a leading PCP figure, said that Badie plans to visit Sudan soon and will attempt to mediate between Turabi and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) headed by president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir. Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989 with the support of the then National Islamic Front (NIF) led by Hassan Al-Turabi but the pair fell out following the introduction of a bill to limit the president’s powers in 1999, a move which the president resisted by dissolving parliament and declaring a state of emergency. Turabi has been in an out of jail and house arrest ever since after splitting ranks with Bashir over accusations ranging from staging a coup attempt to standing behind the rebellion that broke out in Darfur. However the Muslim Brotherhood chief informed the PCP officials that he is fully aware about all the related details and expressed optimism about the prospects of succeeding in his reconciliation efforts. Badie affirmed his keenness to seek settlements among the different parties in Sudan saying it is part of the duties of the Islamic movement in pursuing convergence between Muslims while preserving the unity of Sudan. There have been numerous attempts by Islamists around the world to bring end the long standing dispute between Bashir and Turabi but their efforts met little success.
During the years of former Egyptian President Mubarak’s rule, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders were prohibited from traveling abroad.
Earlier posts had reported that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi had joined Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal and Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi in pressing Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir to release Turabi from prison but that the request had been denied.
Hassan Turabi was involved in the past as a leader in the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and is probably best known as the man who invited Osama bin Laden to live in Khartoum during the 1990s when Sudan was both a center for terrorist activity and strongly under the influence of Turabi. The BBC has published a profile of Turabi which can be found here.