A top Iranian official and a delegation of Hamas and other Palestinian factions are visiting Sudan to support Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said in Khartoum the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader is an “insult.” Al-Beshir is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Huge crowds of supporters of Al-Beshir staged angry demonstrations outside the missions of the European Union and the United Nations Development Program in Khartoum, Friday. Al-Beshir has vowed to press ahead with peace efforts in Darfur. “The ICC (International Criminal Court) will not change anything in the government's plans and programs,” Beshir said. “The government will press ahead with all steps for peace... and will conduct free and fair elections,” he told a late-night Thursday meeting of Sudan's top politicians. Sudan's government shut down 13 foreign aid groups this week, accusing them of passing information to the International Criminal Court. Senior humanitarian officials said the expulsions had left large areas of the highly-charged regions of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, along Sudan's contested north-south border, without any humanitarian cover.
