Sudan warns new US envoy over Juba agreement
Sudan has said it will not cooperate with the new US envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Donald Booth, unless he builds on the agreements signed between Khartoum and Juba.
"I say frankly, if the American president's envoy wants to build on the positive aspects, then there are all these agreements before him, and if he just wants to find a thorn to stab these agreements, then we will not give him room and we will not cooperate with him," Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Karti said Saturday at a press conference in Khartoum.
Karti referred to the Abyei issue, saying that Abyei has never been blurred the way the Americans describe the situation in Sudan and South Sudan. "Abyei is the only issue left for America to use to spoil the relationship between Sudan and South Sudan," he said.
Earlier in the day, Booth, who arrived in Khartoum Friday, met head of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) on the part of Sudan Al-Khair Al-Faheem.
"I thought it was appropriate to have one of the first meetings with AJOC because Abyei is one of the unresolved issues that have come out of the Comprehensive Peace Accord," Booth told reporters following his meeting with Al-Faheem.
He said he wanted to better understand the position of the Miseria community and listen to their proposals to try to reach a final resolution on this important issue of the status of Abyei.
Booth said he would be focusing on Sudan-American relationship and trying to bring forward a resolution for the outstanding issues between Sudan and South Sudan.
South Sudan has earlier announced its adherence to the date fixed by the African Union (AU) mediation in early October for a referendum in Abyei, while Khartoum insists that the referendum would not be held on that date and that any unilateral attempt to conduct it would lead to unlimited consequences.
The AU, during its head of states' summit in September last year, adopted a proposal presented by Thabo Mbeki, head of the AU High-level Implementation Panel on Sudan suggesting conduction of the Abyei referendum in October. (Xinhua)
Source: Daily Nation