Jan 30, 2013

Khartoum yesterday [Jan. 29] accused South Sudan of mobilizing forces reinforced with heavy weapons, armor and vehicles along the border with eastern Darfur. Idris Mohammed Abdul Qadir, minister of state for Sudanese Presidential Affairs and Sudan’s top negotiator with South Sudan, suggested the possibility of extending the African mediation process once the current extension ends in July if negotiating parties fail to reach an agreement.

Following the return of President Omar al-Bashir from Addis Ababa, and after the two rounds of talks failed with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit, Qadir said in a statement that the mediation report did not include any text that referred the issue to the UN Security Council. He added, “Such a text was not included and would be impossible to include in the report.”

Qadir confirmed that Khartoum was committed to hold a referendum to determine the future of Abyei, the area disputed with South Sudan. He said that if the government of South Sudan is opting for something other than the referendum, “we are disposed to consider new options.” He explained that the mediators talked about the need to consider options other than the referendum, adding that the issue of the area is now in the hands of Bashir and Mayardit.

Qadir renewed the Sudanese government’s commitment to defining a demilitarized zone in the Mile 14 area, and rejected the idea of a partially demilitarized zone, saying that it would represent a security threat to the two countries given the presence of pastoral tribes in the area, and that any military presence would obstruct the citizens’ movement. He also accused the government of South Sudan of seeking to take the disputed issues out of the African context.

The Sudanese foreign ministry did not rule out the possibility that “American interests and Zionist lobbies in Western countries” stand behind the "intransigence” of South Sudan’s government in the recent talks, and accused Juba of seeking to bring the issue to the Security Council in New York.