AU Commission chairperson meet with Egyptian special envoy

Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Monday met with Mona Omar, Special Envoy of the Interim President of Egypt at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Egyptian envoy conveyed the position of Egypt's interim government on the decision of the AU Peace and Security Council on July 5 2013, which suspended Egypt's membership in AU until its return of constitutional order. Omar also sought clarification about the terms of reference and the mandate of the AU High-Level Panel on Egypt, which was subsequently established by the AU Commission. The AU High-Level Panel for Egypt, established by the Chairperson of the AU Commission in response to the situation in that country, held its inaugural meeting on July 16 in Addis Ababa. Speaking to the press after the meeting the two officials said that they have held constructive discussion and that they have reached some agreement. Zuma said the Panel would go to Egypt to meet stakeholders and would come back to report to the AU Peace and Security Council. "We had a very constructive discussion. We have reached some agreement. They explained to us what is going on in Egypt and we have agreed that we will send a panel there and they will go there to meet everybody and come back and inform us," said the chairperson of AU Commission. Zuma said AU is very keen that Egypt should speedily come back to the family of the AU and be active member of the union. "we came to explain to say that the revolution that took place in Egypt was a popular uprising nothing of unconstitutional change and we are expecting that our brothers and sisters in Africa in the AU really to support us," said Omar. "We had a very positive discussion and we hope that in the next may be few weeks we will be back again here announcing Egypt resuming its participation in the activities of the AU," said the Special Envoy. AU said that the date of the visit of the AU High-Level Panel to Egypt will be agreed by both parties through diplomatic channels.