US official holds talks in Khartoum on north-south relations

November 20, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A senior aide to United States President Barack Obama held talks with officials in Khartoum today that focused on the deadlock regarding post-secession issues between north and south Sudan.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser, Denis McDonough, met with Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti and according to state media, discussed bilateral relations and the current impasse with South Sudan amid escalating tensions between the neighboring states.

The US special envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman and the interim US Chargé d’Affaires in Khartoum Mary C. Yates’ also participated in the meeting.

The Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Al-Obaid Marawih said that Karti also briefed McDonough on overall situation in the country particularly on the humanitarian front.

The US delegation later met with ruling National Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Ibrahim Ghandour and went over the status of negotiations with South Sudan.

The post-secession negotiations are aimed at reaching a compromise on items such as border demarcation, Abyei, national debt and oil.

Ghandour told reporters that the meeting was for the US to get acquainted with Khartoum’s point of view on the post-secession issues.

The African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki has been leading mediation efforts between Khartoum and Juba since two years ago but his efforts have yielded little results so far.

A new round of negotiations scheduled for yesterday in Ethiopia between the two countries was called off by Khartoum as the latter said it has “fundamental reservations,” on Mbeki’s proposals.

“But the Sudanese government has fundamental reservations about the economic proposals by (Thabo) Mbeki’s team, on oil and border trade, and about the two tracks of the negotiations,” Marawih told reporters this week.

Last July South Sudan became the world’s newest country after voting for independence in a January vote, taking with it three-quarters of the former united country’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil production.

Sudan is particularly looking for a quick agreement on oil transit fees for south’s use of its pipelines amid growing economic crisis as a result of losing access to the oilfields in South Sudan.

The two countries have recently stepped up accusations that the other side is supporting rebels.

The Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N rebels in the border states of South Kordofan since June and in Blue Nile since September. Khartoum accused the rebels of provoking the fighting while SPLM-N claimed that SAF wanted to forcibly disarm them.

Both states border the newly independent state of South Sudan and their population largely fought alongside the south during Sudan’s north-south second civil war 1983-2005.

Last week tensions escalated between the two countries after SAF fighter jet was reported to have bombed a refugee camp inside South Sudan near the borders causing an unspecified number of casualties.

The incident drew strong condemnation from the United Nations and the United States.

(ST)