Dialogue with Renamo cannot be conditional, reiterates Nyusi from Lisbon

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Dialogue with Renamo cannot be conditional, reiterates Nyusi from Lisbon

11:37 CAT | 10 Mar 2016

Notícias / President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi with president of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, photographed in Lisbon on Tuesday, March 8 2016.

President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi reaffirmed yesterday in Lisbon that dialogue with Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, cannot be conditional.

“Dialogue should happen naturally. We want dialogue and we have chosen the team in charge of preparing the meeting with Afonso Dhlakama,” Nyusi said in response to the Renamo leader’s making dialogue conditional on the presence of mediators from the South African government, Catholic church and European Union.

The president was speaking to journalists during his visit to the Portuguese capital for the inauguration of the new Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

De Sousa took office on Wednesday in the Portuguese parliament before more than 500 domestic and foreign guests, including Filipe Nyusi, the King Philip VI of Spain, and the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker.

President Nyusi described the ceremony as “simple, but full of joy”.

As well as attending the inauguration ceremony, the president met the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, during which the two parties updated the framework for cooperation in various fields.

Filipe Nyusi left the Portuguese capital on Wednesday to return to Maputo.

Last week, the Mozambican president appointed Jacinto Veloso, member of the National Defence and Security Council, presidential advisor Maria Benvinda Levi and presidency official Alves Muteque, to prepare the meeting with Dhlakama.

On Tuesday, the government announced that all logistical and security conditions for dialogue between the president and the leader of Renamo had been assured, and reiterated that dialogue must go ahead without preconditions.

Without mentioning Renamo’s demands, the government urged the movement to disarm voluntarily and unconditionally, and its leader to accept the president’s invitation to contribute to the peace and welfare in the country.

Source: Notícias