South Sudan’s president visits Khartoum on Saturday
October 6, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir will be in Khartoum on Saturday for talks on the post independence arrangements but he will also seek to contain growing tensions with the northern neighbor.
Khartoum expressed hopes that bilateral talks, which will start after Kiir’s arrival, produce the desired results, paving the way for good relations and cooperation between the two neighbor countries.
Among the many things the two presidents should discuss there are the issues of Abyei, oil transportation fees and border where ten crossing points are established recently. But the parties failed to resolve the dispute over borders of Upper Nile state with Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and white Nile states in the north.
Also, Juba and Khartoum are aware that the ongoing conflict in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile will affect the relations between the two countries and might lead to more tensions during the upcoming period.
Last Friday, South Sudan minister of information Barnaba Marial Benjamin told the press that the talks will focus on post independence on post-independence arrangements particularly issues connected with the oil charges, border, the Abyei and the fate of old Sudanese pound as well as the citizenship right and residence”.
Analysts say a deal over the pipeline fee is needed to give a good start for talks on the remaining issues as Khartoum has an important need of hard currency and the South continue to export oil without making an advance payment since July.
President Bashir said recently they will support this situation until the end of October and then they have to take a decision. Khartoum demands 32 dollars per barrel which is seen as exaggerated.
Kiir will be accompanied by a big delegation including 8 ministers and two deputy ministers. Minister of cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, minister of foreign affairs Nihal Deng, minister of finances and economic planning Kosti Manibe, and petroleum minister Stephen Dhieu Dau.
A press conference is planned on Sunday for the outcome of the meetings but sources in Khartoum say talks might continue if necessary for one or two more days.
A southern official disclosed last week that US President Barak Obama has encouraged Salva Kiir to broker a deal between his former comrades in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the Sudanese government.
The South Sudanese president in his speech last September before the UN General Assembly said that a framework brokered by the African Union last June should be a basis for talks to end the fighting in the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.
However, Bashir had already rejected this deal and stipulated that talks should take place inside the country with a disarmed SPLM-N. Also Yasir Arman the secretary general of the rebel movement said their demands now are beyond the Addis Ababa framework agreement as they work on regime change strategy.
In Khartoum, a news service close to the Sudanese intelligence, SMC, reported today new accusations against Juba. The semi-official media said that Juba transported weapons by aircraft to the rebel stronghold town of Kurmuk near the Ethiopian border.
(ST)