Egyptian army warns Sudan not to make any claims to disputed border region: report
May 2, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – A senior Egyptian military official who visited Sudan last week has warned Khartoum that his government will not make any concessions on the disputed border region, according to a newspaper report.
Lt Gen Sobhi emphasized that the Egyptian army will never agree to relinquish the country’s sovereignty over Halayeb and Shalateen areas claimed by Sudan.
“This is a done deal,” Lt Gen Sobhi was cited as telling Khartoum. He urged the Sudanese government not to bring up the issue again for the sake of preserving historic ties between the neighboring countries.
Last month a controversy erupted in Egypt following assertions made by Sudanese presidential assistant Musa Mohamed Ahmed that president Muhammad Morsi promised him during his recent visit to Khartoum to restore the situation in Halayeb to its pre-1995 status.
The Egyptian army seized control of Halayeb region, an area of land measuring 20,580 square km in the border areas of the Red Sea coast, after relations between the two neighbors plummeted due to the 1995’s failed attempt by Islamists allegedly backed by Sudan to assassinate the then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
The genesis of the disputes over Halayeb dates back to as early as 1958 after Sudan gained independence from being ruled jointly by Britain and Egypt. The wrangle is a result of a discrepancy in the demarcation of political boundaries set by the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and the ones set earlier by the British in 1902.
Cairo has routinely dismissed Khartoum’s demands that the issue be resolved through international arbitration.
During Morsi’s visit to Khartoum last month, Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir downplayed the dispute saying that the borders were demarcated b the colonial powers.
(ST)