Egypt attended the summit of the African Union (AU)s Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa on Wednesday upon an invitation from the pan-African body to give a briefing on developments in the country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati said.Egypts membership, however, is still suspended, he told Anadolu Agency.The spokesman denied that Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Hamdi Loza had travelled to Addis Ababa to submit a request for attending the summit.Loza attended the summit to present a briefing on the situation in Egypt and the steps taken to implement the transitional roadmap, Abdel-Ati said.On Wednesday, a diplomatic source told AA that the AU had rejected an Egyptian request to attend a meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council.The AU suspended Egypts membership two days after the military unseated elected president Mohamed Morsi – a measure taken automatically by the pan-African body in the event of unconstitutional change of government in a member state.On Tuesday, Loza told AA that Egypt will invite the AU to monitor planned presidential and parliamentary elections as part of efforts to reverse a decision to suspend its membership.We plan to invite the African Union to observe the presidential and parliament elections, he said. The suspension will come to an end with our political process making more progress following [Januarys] referendum vote.Earlier this month, nearly 20 million Egyptians approved a revised version of the 2012 constitution, which was suspended by the army at the time of Morsis overthrow.The constitutional vote was the first benchmark in an army-imposed post-Morsi transitional roadmap.Egyptian interim President Adly Mansour decided on Sunday to change the order of the roadmap to allow presidential elections before parliamentary polls.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:32:21 +0000
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