Thaksin Shinawatra has acknowledged the reality that he cannot bring his sister Yingluck back home for the Songkran festival this year as he had earlier foreshadowed.
Shortly after returning from 15 years of self-exile in August, Thaksin said he planned to bring Yingluck back to Thailand in time to celebrate the traditional new year together.
On Sunday, he finally admitted his sister had to wait a while longer, saying the timing was inappropriate for her return. "A wish and the reality sometimes are not the same," the former prime minister told reporters.
"When the time is right, she will return," he added.
Thaksin refused to elaborate on the factors still hindering his determination to bring Yingluck home from her exile, spent largely in London.
Thaksin said he will celebrate Songkran in Chiang Mai from April 12-13.
Yingluck fled the country in 2017 just before the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced her for failing to act against corruption in her government's rice-pledging policy when she was prime minister.