Sudan NCP refuses negotiations with SPLM-N

The leadership council of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) chaired by president Omar Hassan al-Bashir announced on Thursday that it accepted the UN Security Council resolution, however, did not agree to negotiations with the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N). This month the UNSC adopted a resolution under Chapter VII dealing with negotiations between Khartoum and Juba but also instructing the Sudanese government and SPLM-N to cooperate with AUHIP in seeking a solution on the basis of a June 2011 agreement. Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti said following NCP’s meeting that this clause was "totally rejected" and that they would discuss the matter with mediators and friends in the UNSC. The SPLM-N issued a statement this week saying it welcomed the UNSC resolution while stressing that a "comprehensive peaceful settlement is the best choice for the Sudanese people and the parties to the conflict". "The entry point for the comprehensive peaceful settlement in Sudan is for the parties to address urgently and seriously the humanitarian crisis in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile immediately and put into effect the tripartite agreement of the United Nations, African Union and the Arab League, which was signed by the SPLM-N long ago and avoided by Khartoum who used different tricks to buy time. The SPLM-N is ready for a humanitarian cessation of hostilities that will enable the UN, African Union and Arab League to implement their proposal," said the statement signed by SPLM-N Secretary General Yasser Arman. The Sudanese minister of foreign affairs, Ali Karti, defended before parliament his country’s acceptance of the resolution ordering it to return to negotiations with South Sudan. Karti told parliamentarians that Sudan has no choice but to comply with the resolution which, according to him, was better than the African Union (AU)’s roadmap that formed its basis in the sense that it threw the ball back to the two countries’ negotiating teams and met Sudan’s demands for prioritising security issues. Months of AU-mediated negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan over oil exports, citizenship, disputed borders and security floundered dangerously in early April, leading shortly after to military confrontations between around the disputed oil-producing region known as Heglig in Sudan and as Panthou in South Sudan. Alarmed by the situation, the AU produced a roadmap ordering the two countries to cease hostilities immediately and return to negotiations with a three-month deadline to conclude them. The AU then referred the roadmap to the UNSC which, on May 2, issued a resolution adopting the recommendations and threatening both countries with non-military sanctions if they failed to comply. Sudan’s top diplomat reassured the parliament on the UNSC’s threats of sanctions, claiming that Khartoum did not initiate any hostilities and was not involved in arming groups rebelling against the South Sudanese government in Juba. Karti said that Khartoum is serious in returning to negotiations but will not do so unless priority is accorded to resolving security issues. Khartoum accuses Juba of supporting rebels who once fought as part of South Sudan’s army and are now fighting against the government in Sudan’s border regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Juba denies the charge and accuses Khartoum of doing the same with southern rebel groups. The Sudanese government appears to believe that it can crush the rebels militarily if South Sudan ceases to support them. “We will not steer away from security issues. Sudan will not negotiate on the issues of oil and other material interests with a dagger on its back,” Karti said. The minister also said that Khartoum has nothing to fear from returning to talks, in response to extremist elements calling for no negotiations with South Sudan. The Sudanese government is under pressure from hard-line figures in the NSCP as well as from the far-right Just Peace Forum (JPF) to defy the UNSC resolution. Karti urged dealing with the UNSC resolution in a rational and wise way, promising that the government will not sign any deal that is not in the interest of Sudan. In response to Karti’s address, the parliament’s speaker, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, warned that parliamentarians would not approve of any step that harms that interest of Sudanese people.