Sudan says it is unaware of US suspension of Nafie’s planned visit
June 22, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie denied reports that he was notified of a move by the United States to freeze an invitation extended to him to visit Washington.
Nafie, who is also the NCP vice chairman, said that Washington assigned dates to the visit in the past but there was no agreement on the agenda.
He said it is up to the US to decide on the visit but if it makes up its mind then the NCP is willing to conduct a dialogue with Washington and as such accepted the invitation.
On Wednesday, a US official announced that Washington revoked its invitation to Nafie in light of Sudan’s decision to freeze cooperation with South Sudan and shut down the oil pipelines
“When that decision was made a caveat was and was expressed to Khartoum at the time is that this visit could only take place in the context of a Sudan that is implementing its cooperation agreements with South Sudan,” said Larry André, Director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan at the US State Department.
“As of earlier this month Sudan ceased implementing these agreements. We have passed the message back to Nafie Ali Nafie that as long as the government of Khartoum is suspending the implementation of these agreement we are suspending this invitation” André said in a testimony before the US House of Representatives.
But lawmakers chided the Obama administration for inviting a “well known torturer” and “human rights abuser” and asked whether this should be construed as a “new angle of diplomacy”.
“The very thought that you are going to bring Nafie here is just incredible…The standard of this town [Washington] has sunk so low..it shows there are no standards….it is immoral…it is absolutely immoral” Representative Frank Wolf said.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Abu-Bakr al-Sideeg on his end said that US decision to suspend Nafie’s visit confirms that Washington bases its decisions and positions towards Sudan on “faulty” reasoning like its other policies with Khartoum.
Al-Sideeg asserted that the US administration is still subject to the pressures of an extremist group in the US Congress who have adopted hostile attitudes towards Sudan from the start for ideological reasons,
The Sudanese diplomat said that this group does not want to listen to other opinions and realities and does not want others to hear dissenting views.
He reiterated that the invitation was a result of contacts between the U.S. charge d’affaires and the NCP for the purpose of dialogue based on Nafie’s capacity as NCP official.
Al-Sideeg also denied André statements that Khartoum froze cooperation agreements with Juba but has decided to stop the passage of South Sudan oil through Sudanese territory after 60 days due to their failure to halt their support for armed rebel movements.
He further said that bridges of communication with Juba are still in place and noted the upcoming visit by South Sudan VP to Khartoum.
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.
The most notable provision in the agreement is related to resumption of oil exports by landlocked South Sudan which were suspended more than a year ago because of a dispute over transit fees. Oil started flowing again in April.
(ST)