Jerusalem President al-Bashir of Sudan, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges for the mass killings in Darfur, flew to Qatar for an Arab League summit, his fourth trip abroad since a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was greeted in Doha yesterday by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of the Gulf state, and by Amr Mussa, the head of the Arab League. Although Qatar has not signed up to the ICC, there had been speculation that Mr al-Bashir would stay away to avoid embarrassing the summit. However, amid rising disunity in the Arab world over growing Iranian influence and Israel’s assault on Gaza, the only issue that delegates appeared to agree on was backing the Sudanese leader, whose war on rebels in Darfur has killed up to 300,000 people. The Arab League has criticised the warrant, saying that it would destabilise the region further.

Arab leaders are under pressure from human rights groups to urge Mr al-Bashir to reverse his decision to expel aid workers in response to the ICC ruling.

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