AWKWARD

Sudanese Leader Indicted for Genocide to Attend Saudi Summit With Trump

No word on whether Trump will meet with him.

Sudan’s president is due to attend a summit in Saudi Arabia this weekend alongside President Trump, putting the U.S. president in the company of a man wanted for genocide. Sudan’s foreign minister confirmed President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s attendance Wednesday, but said he had not been made aware of any meeting between Bashir and Trump. “On the question of the Trump-Bashir handshake, nobody can pretend anything, but anyway, President Bashir has been invited by the Saudis to be in that conference,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour was cited as saying by Reuters. Asked whether he’d like Trump to shake hands with Bashir, Ghandour said he has “hopes” of such a thing. Bashir, indicted in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his actions in the Darfur conflict, has ignored charges against him by the International Criminal Court. It was not immediately clear if the White House was aware of Bashir’s attendance, but human-rights advocates say Trump will be making a big mistake if he rubs elbows with Bashir. “Any interaction by President Trump with al-Bashir in Saudi Arabia, should al-Bashir attend the meeting, would send a terrible signal to the victims of the crimes and raise major questions about U.S. commitment to justice for them,” Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch told The New York Times.