Sudan tells US top diplomat in Khartoum ‘not to offer any advices’

June 12, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s foreign minister, Ali Karti has asked the United States charge d’affaires (CDA) in Khartoum Joseph Stafford to stop offering any advices to the government on its recent decision to halt oil flow from landlocked South Sudan.

Last Saturday, Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir ordered the closure of all pipelines carrying oil from South Sudan. He told a public rally in the capital Khartoum that the move was in response to South Sudan’s funding of Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebels fighting his government in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Stafford, according to the US State department spokesperson Jen Psaki, met with Karti on Monday and expressed Washington’s deep concern on Bashir’s decision urged Sudan to reverse its decision.

Psaki, who was speaking at the state department’s daily briefing on Tuesday, added that Stafford also reiterated the need to fully and immediately implement all aspects of last year’s cooperation agreements.

In September of last year, both Sudan and South Sudan signed a series of cooperation agreements, which covered oil, citizenship rights, security issues, banking, border trade among others.

Last March, the two countries signed an implementation matrix for these cooperation agreements.

But a statement issued by Sudan’s foreign ministry today denied the US State department version of story regarding meeting with Stafford.

“The foreign ministry had summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires, and the foreign minister told him of the government’s decision to shut down the pipeline”.

The statement went on to say that foreign minister asked Stafford “to convey to the U.S. government that Sudan has taken this decision after exhausting all diplomatic efforts to persuade South Sudan’s government to stop supporting rebels, and harboring Darfur armed group, and withdraw from several Sudanese areas occupied by the southern army”.

It added that the foreign minister told Stafford that “If the US was concerned about the negative impact of this decision on South Sudan’s government, it should offer advice to its friends in the south to stop supporting and harboring rebels and withdraw from Sudanese territory, otherwise the government’s decision to halt oil flow would remain in place ”.

At the meeting Karti cut short Stafford and prevented him from providing any input or response telling him that he was summoned to be notified on Khartoum’s decision only, the statement said.

US relations with Sudan have been strained for more than two decades with Khartoum complaining that Washington sides with Juba.

Sudan has been under the US blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism since 1993 on allegations of harbouring Islamist militants despite credible reports of Sudan being a cooperative intelligence partner of Washington in the “war on terror”.

Sudan is also subject to comprehensive economic sanctions since 1997 over terrorism charges as well as human right abuses. Further sanctions, particularly on weapons, have been imposed since the 2003 outbreak of violence in the western Darfur region.

(ST)