President Thabo Mbeki hopes to travel to Côte d’Ivoire ”as quickly as possible” to meet all parties to the ongoing conflict in that country and discuss a solution.
”I want to go back very, very quickly,” Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria at the start of discussions with the leader of the rebel-held north, Guillaume Soro, who arrived earlier in South Africa.
He had just finished separate three-hour long talks with Côte d’Ivoire Prime Minister Seydou Diarra.
His discussions with Soro on ways to bring a power-sharing deal back on tract will be the last with individual representatives of the Côte d’Ivoire leadership, Mbeki said.
He will next assess the views expressed by all the different parties consulted and come up with a proposal.
Mbeki said he will travel to that country to meet its president, political parties, Parliament and rebel representatives ”to say our assessment is as follows and this is what we think should happen”.
Mbeki said he is positive that progress will be made in his talks with Soro, particularly on military issues.
After talks with Mbeki earlier, Diarra said he is hopeful the mediation efforts will be heightened.
Mbeki, who was tasked as Côte d’Ivoire mediator by the African Union, ”has got ideas already that can be positively accepted”, Diarra said in French before leaving the presidential guesthouse.
Diarra said he hopes Mbeki will return to Abidjan soon to get ”deeper into contact” with the different parties to the conflict.
He did not know when this will happen, saying it depends on Mbeki’s programme.
Diarra said he shares with Mbeki his views on how to ensure that an existing power-sharing agreement becomes effective.
Mbeki is to canvass the same issues later on Saturday afternoon with the leader of the rebel-held north, Guillaume Soro, who arrived in the country on Saturday morning.
In the past two weeks, clashes between the government, rebels and the French military shattered an 18-month-old ceasefire in the West African country.
The once-peaceful country has been ripped apart by fighting between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south in the past few years. — Sapa