Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
said in an interview with sister channel Al Arabiya News.
Commenting on his country's relations with Iran, Bashir said: "They are ordinary relations between any two countries."
"People pointed to things we were not well aware of: cultural centers that proselytized Shiism. We should note that we are Sunni. And we have enough problems," he said.
"We cannot handle a new problem and conflicts between Sunnism and Shiism. We closed these centers because we figured that they could harm Sudan and national unity," he said.
His statement was in reference to an announcement the Sudanese government made in September, in which it said that the Iranian cultural center in the capital and its other branches had violated their mandate and become a social and ideological threat to the largely Sunni country.
The government also expelled Iranian diplomats.
Commenting on the situation in Libya, President Bashir denied that his country supported