South Sudan’s president visits Khartoum on Saturday
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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 also he will seek to appease crowing
tensions with the northern neighbour.
JPEG - 19.7 kb
South Sudan’s Salva Kiir welcomes Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for
a presidency meeting, at Juba airport April 7, 2011 (Reuters)
Sudan’s foreign ministry welcomed the visit and announced on Thursday
that Slava Kiir will be received in Khartoum for the first time as the
president of a foreign nation by his Sudanese counterpart Omer
al-Bashir.
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)
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