Sudan issue omitted from AUPSC agenda – diplomat

June 24, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) has informed Khartoum that progress of its talks with Juba was excluded from its agenda in Monday’s meeting, a Sudanese diplomat said today.

The deputy head of Sudan’s mission at the AU Abdullah Wadi told the pro-government Ashorooq TV that the chairman of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki was unable to brief the council as originally planned.

Wadi said that Mbeki was forced to devote attention to the recent crisis that erupted between the two neighboring states after Sudan.

He said that AUHIP chair is still awaiting formal responses from the two states to his proposals to defuse the crisis.

“Recent developments have changed the situation .. and Mbeki does not have anything to present to the AUPSC”.

Khartoum said this month it would close within 60 days two pipelines carrying oil exports from landlocked South Sudan to Port Sudan unless Juba cut ties with Sudanese rebels. The south denies doing so, and accuses Sudan in turn of backing insurgents on its soil.

The Sudanese diplomat said the AU body is waiting to see the fate of the new initiative and the implementation of previous cooperation agreements.

(ST)