Sudan’s FM rules out return to war with South Sudan
December 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti has voiced confidence that his country and South Sudan are not going back to war, unlike his southern counterpart who warned few days ago that the two sides are on the brink of war.
But the legacy of war and mutual distrust continues to define bilateral relations which recently reached a low point due to disagreements over management of oil resources and conflicts in Sudan’s border areas with forces aligned with the south.
The armies of Sudan and South Sudan this week clashed for the first time since the south’s independence in Jau border town. The disputed town was occupied by the Sudanese army before it was retaken few days later by the southern army.
Following Jau’s clashes, South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Nhial Deng Nhial told the BBC on Friday that the two countries were “on the brink of outright war.”
“Although there have been frequent aerial bombardments of different places in the Republic of South Sudan, we think that Khartoum has raised this offensive to an entirely new level by committing ground forces to cross into the Republic of South Sudan,” he said.
“We are still very much committed to the principle of dialogue with Khartoum – we are still hopeful that we can pull back from the brink of outright war,” he added.
But his Sudanese counterpart Ali Karti preferred to strike a conciliatory tone in an interview published on Tuesday by the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.
Asked about the possibility of a return to war between the recently separated countries, Karti replied “I don’t think matters will reach that point. We are confident that there is a great deal of determination in the north and the south not to allow matters to go into war.”
He further said that the ongoing huffing and puffing between the two countries is “normal in light of the disagreements over some issues, specifically those which lead to direct confrontation on the border areas.”
However, Sudan’s top diplomat admitted that there are attempts to “penetrate the wall of peace” between the two countries, without saying who the attempters are.
Sudan urges US involvement in oil dispute with South Sudan
At the heart of the tension currently dominating the relations between Sudan and South Sudan is a disagreement over the fees Juba should pay to Khartoum for the use of its pipelines infrastructure to bring the south’s oil to export terminals in Sudan’s main sea outlet of Port Sudan. South Sudan inherited 75 percent of the 500,000 barrels of oil Sudan used to produce on daily basis after it gained independence.
With the continued absence of an agreement on the fees and collapse of AU-mediated talks in Addis Ababa earlier this month, the situation escalated as Khartoum threatened to confiscate oil shipped from the south and imposes a unilateral fee of 32 US dollar per barrel. Khartoum says South Sudan has not paid any oil transit fees since independence.
China, the biggest investor in the Sudanese oil sector, dispatched an envoy to try and break the deadlock, warning of serious consequences if the two sides failed to peacefully resolve the dispute.
Asked whether he thinks the Chinese mediation would succeed in salvaging the situation, Karti suggested that China may not be seen as an impartial mediator by southerner, revealing that Sudan had proposed to include the West and the US in order to increase chances of success.
“In our opinion, there are other sides that might help in improving the relations between Sudan and South Sudan,” he said.
Asked to elaborate on the identity of those sides, Karti replied: “the West and the United States. I think it is plausible that China at this stage will not be accepted by southerners. We wholeheartedly accept the mediation of the Chinese but we proposed to them to include others in this endeavor.”
(ST)