Sudan summons envoy to Qatar for consultation

KHARTOUM, June 02 (Xinhua): Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Saturday announced that the Sudanese ambassador to Qatar had been summoned for consultation.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to note that Sudan's Ambassador to Qatar Fath Al-Rahman Ali Mohamed has been summoned for consultation," said a ministry statement.

Ali Mohamed "will leave for Doha within the coming hours," the statement added.

Earlier news reports said Sudan's Foreign Ministry summoned its ambassador to Qatar at the request of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) hours after the closure of the office of Al Jazeera satellite news channel in Khartoum.

Thousands of Sudanese protesters have been staging a sit-in in front of the army's general headquarters since April 6 to put pressure on the TMC to hand the power to civilians, particularly after talks between the TMC and the major opposition Freedom and Change Alliance reached a deadlock.