Sudan's Bashir turns down summit with South Sudan's Kiir
Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:08pm GMT
(Adds British U.N. envoy, background; paragraphs 9-12)
KHARTOUM, July 31 (Reuters) - Sudan's president has turned down an
invitation from the African Union to meet South Sudan's leader on Wednesday
to move forward stalled talks to end hostilities, state news agency SUNA
said on Tuesday.
The neighbours came close to war when border fighting escalated in April,
the worst violence since South Sudan declared its independence a year ago
under a 2005 agreement that ended decades of civil war.
African Union-sponsored talks between negotiators from both sides have
ground to a halt over disputed issues, including where to mark the border
and how much landlocked South Sudan should pay to export oil through
northern pipelines.
The two countries face a possible threat of sanctions from the U.N. Security
Council if they do not resolve their disputes by Thursday.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the AU's mediator, invited
Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir to meet South Sudan President Salva
Kiir in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday, Sudan's foreign ministry
told SUNA.
But Bashir turned down the meeting because of a previously scheduled visit
to Qatar, the ministry said.
"The government prefers that such a summit should be held after good
preparation and planning," ministry spokesman El-Obeid Morawah told the
state news agency.
He said a presidents' summit "should not discuss details of negotiations,
but finalise certain issues to get positive results for the situation of
both countries."
Speaking in New York after the U.N. Security Council renewed the mandate for
the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, Britai n's U . N. amb
assador, M ark Lyall Grant, t old reporters it was crucial for Khartoum and
Juba to meet the Thursday deadline for results of their dialogue.
" We had hoped that the two leaders would be getting together early this
week in order to try and resolve those outstanding differences," Lyall Grant
said.
"W e urge both leaders to show the necessary statesmanship to make the
necessary compromises so that agreement can be reached on these outstanding
issues," he said. "Th e Security Council has set a deadline and expects
results by that deadline."
Given Russia's and China's opposition to sanctions, however, council
diplomats said the council was unlikely to do anything more than issue a
statement rebuking Sudan and South Sudan if they fail to meet the Thursday
deadline as expected.
The two sides have made progress on oil talks, but have still not reached an
agreement, Morawah said. Talks over the disputed border will resume on
Wednesday, he said.
There was no immediate comment from South Sudan or the African Union.
South Sudan shut down its oil production in January after both sides failed
to agree on an export fee and Khartoum started taking oil as what it called
compensation for unpaid fees. Oil is the lifeline of both economies.
Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting rebels in two southern border states
and the Western Darfur region, allegations that some diplomats find credible
despite denials from Juba.
South Sudan itself accuses its neighbour of bombing its territory. Sudan
routinely denies these allegations but Reuters reporters have witnessed
several air strikes. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Khartoum and Louis
Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Pravin Char and Stacey Joyce)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Tue Jul 31 2012 - 17:59:03 EDT
