Juba Hopes For Breakthrough Ahead Of Khartoum Talks South Sudan's Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, will visit Khartoum On Sunday, marking the highest-level talks since the Sudanese President Omar Bashir threatened to cut off cross-border oil flows three weeks ago. 27 June 2013 Juba Hopes For Breakthrough Ahead Of Khartoum Talks Dr. Riek Machar at a past event. Diplomats doubt Sudan will close the two cross-border export pipelines because its economy has been suffering without South Sudan's pipeline fees. [Gurtong | File]
By Waakhe Simon Wudu JUBA, 27 June 2013 [Gurtong] - South Sudan is optimistic that a breakthrough will be reached with Sudan ahead of a scheduled visit to Khartoum to diffuse recent crisis between the neighbours. Hon. Stephen Dhieu, South Sudanese Minister of Petroleum and Mining yesterday told Gurtong in an exclusive interview that, Riek will on Sunday lead a delegation comprising of some Ministers to Khartoum for talks with Sudanese Vice President over recent political tension. Based on environment within recent days, Dhieu is optimistic that the Sunday talks will result into a break through. “We hope that what was said must be changed,” Dhieu said. In previous weeks Sudanese President Omar Bashir had threatened to shut down South Sudan oil flow through its territory within 60 days over allegations denied by Juba that it is backing rebels fighting its government, a move that threatened a UN and AU backed Cooperation Agreement reached last year. Juba said the accusations are baseless and that it has no connection to the oil shutdown. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir in a response to Bashir threatening statement said, Khartoum wants to use the accusation to cover up its internal problems. “60 days is not consistent with the Cooperation Agreement. The oil cannot be shut down for the reasons which are irrelevant to the oil itself,” Dhieu said. “There are only two reasons that the oil can be shut down; technical challenges - the two parties if they fail to address it then they can be shutdown, the operation or if economically none sustainability of the operations its self has become too much for the two parties,” said Dhieu. Dhieu said despite the threats by Khartoum, oil production since started in April is still flowing normal. The international community and activists have condemned the Khartoum’s threats and urged the two parties to work for peace by fully implementing the Cooperation Agreement. Posted in: Home, Business, Foreign Relations, Governance -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14orJs%2BW6t4YnM4YTX1hzj%3Du5u%2BOew3J043nxBtNhXbewZQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
