Sudan blames Juba’s “negative attitude” for failure of oil talks
Article
Comments (58)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
February 1, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has attributed the failure of the
latest round of talks with South Sudan on oil to Juba’s “negative
attitude,” accusing its southern neighbors of plotting to topple the
government in Khartoum.
JPEG - 37.5 kb
FILE - Head of Sudan’s negotiating team Idris Abdul Gadir (L) speaks
during a press conference (SUNA)
In a statement circulated to the media on Wednesday, Sudan’s
negotiating team expressed disappointment at the failure of the latest
round of talks, which took place between 17 and 28 January in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa under the mediation of the African Union
High Level Pane (AUHIP) led by former South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
The two countries have been negotiating for months to reach a deal on
a fair charge to transport oil produced by the land-locked South Sudan
through Sudan’s pipelines.
But as the talks dragged on and the gap remained wide, Khartoum moved
to confiscate South Sudan’s oil, prompting the latter to accuse it of
“stealing” oil revenues amounting to US$850 million. Juba later
decided to suspend oil production all together and seek an alternative
route to transport its oil.
Sudan’s statement said that members of its negotiating team had come
to the negotiation table with every intention of reaching an agreement
unlike their South Sudanese counterparts who sought to abort all
possibilities of solutions.
The statement claimed that the South Sudanese government was “in fact
seeking to create a crisis” through a flurry of “negative comments’ by
the head of its negotiating team, Pagan Amum, as well as the decision
to halt oil production while negotiations were in progress.
“The Government of South Sudan was not willing to reach a fair
agreement,” the statement said, adding that this “negative attitude”
had culminated in South Sudan’s decision to reject a deal proposed by
the AUHIP to end the dispute within one month.
South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit rejected to sign the
AUHIP-proposed deal following head-to-head talks with his Sudanese
counterpart Omer Al-Bashir on the margins of the AU summit in Addis
Ababa earlier this week.
Kiir later said that the proposed agreement was “vague” on some issues
and fell short of meeting South Sudan’s anticipation.
If signed, the deal would have seen South Sudan reversing its decision
to halt oil production in response to Khartoum’s sequestration of its
crude, and the latter receiving from Juba $4 billion over the next
five years as well as 35,000 barrels per day for the use of
refineries.
Kiir also suggested that the deal failed to address in holistic terms
the fundamental causes of the crisis between the two countries which,
according to Kiir, go beyond oil to include disputed border
territories such as the hotly contested region of Abyei.
However, Sudan’s statement considered the inclusion of other issues
such as Abyei as part of “the insurmountable preconditions” created by
South Sudan to scuttle attempts to reach an agreement.
Furthermore, the statement said that the goal of this intransigence,
“as GoSS mistakenly believe”, is to prepare the ground for changing
the regime in Khartoum through the south’s northern proxy agents of
the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLMN) in collaboration
with Zionist lobby groups in the United States and other Western
circles that harbor hostility towards Sudan.
Sudan routinely accuses Juba of supporting the SPLMN rebels who are
fighting the government in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and who
fought as part of the southern army in the war against Khartoum which
ended with a 2005 peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan’s
independence in July last year.
Juba denies supporting its former comrades in arms and counter accuses
Khartoum of supporting southern rebel groups.
The Sudanese statement further warned that Khartoum would hold South
Sudan responsible for any attempt to destroy oil production facilities
belonging to the Sudanese government, particularly the Greater Nile
Oil Pipeline which runs through South Kordofan.
“As known to everyone, the rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile are
receiving full support from South Sudan which organizes training camps
for them on its territories”
The statement cited President Al-Bashir’s decision to release four
impounded vessels containing South Sudan’s oil as a gesture of good
will and evidence of Sudan’s desire to reach an agreement.
The statement concluded that the Government of Sudan will continue to
negotiate in good faith and urged GoSS to reconsider its hostile
attitudes towards Sudan.
(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.
