US calls for swift resolution of oil dispute between Khartoum and Juba
* Article
* Comments (57)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
January 30, 2012 (WASHINGTON) – The United States (US) permanent
representative to the United Nations (UN), Susan Rice, on Monday urged
the neighbouring states of Sudan and South Sudan to quickly resolve
their long standing dispute over oil.
JPEG - 21 kb
US permanent representative to the UN, Susan Rice, January 30, 2012 (UN)
Speaking to reporters following a closed United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) meeting on South Sudan, Rice noted the decision by
Khartoum to release four oil tankers carrying cargo belonging to Juba.
“We believe that four of the ships have now just been released, which
is an overdue and important step.” Rice said.
“We hope that conditions can quickly be created so that the parties
can sit at the table and finalise, as swiftly as possible, a permanent
arrangement with respect to the oil and revenue sharing, without which
both sides will suffer and the loss of oil revenue will be crippling
to all”, she added.
The landlocked nation of South Sudan halted production of its oil and
the exportation of it through the north’s pipeline to Port Sudan in a
dramatic escalation of a dispute over the payment of transit fees.
Juba further claims that Khartoum has confiscated US$815 million worth
of its oil since last year.
Sudanese officials justified their move by saying that the
negotiations on oil transit fees have yielded no results and that they
can no longer wait given the economic crisis in their country,
resulting from the secession of the south which contained 75% of oil
reserves.
Juba strongly resisted Khartoum’s call for US$36 per barrel in transit
fees and so far all proposals tabled by the African Union High Level
Implementation Panel (AUHIP) have received lukewarm backing from the
two sides who kept pushing for amendments.
The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan met in a quartet summit organised
over the weekend in Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi and attended by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki, but talks broke
down without any agreement.
Nonetheless, Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir heeded a request
by Zenawi and ordered the immediate release of four oil tankers held
by Khartoum since earlier this month as part of the dispute.
Khartoum called on Juba to reciprocate and reverse their decision to
suspend oil production. South Sudanese officials however insist that
the northern neighbour must return the “stolen” oil.
The US permanent representative to the UN also expressed her
government’s “grave concern” on the “deteriorating” situation in the
border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The World Food Program (WFP) said today that conflict and food
shortages could force up to half a million Sudanese refugees to flee
to South Sudan in the next few months if Khartoum does not allow aid
agencies into the two states.
The U.S. warned this month that it will look into a launching
unilateral operation to provide aid to affected population in these
two states without Khartoum’s permission stressing that famine could
ensue by March.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"South Sudan Info - The Kob" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
