Sudan envoy: South Sudan president will not mediate

Sudan’s presidential envoy for diplomatic negotiation for Darfur said that South Sudan will not mediate the peace negotiations related to Darfur or South Kordofan and Blue Nile. This week, the Sudanese government has announced the appointment as mediator of President Salva Kiir to settle the dispute in the 'Two Areas'.

Chief government negotiator Dr Amin Hassan Omar told Sudanese press: “The role of the Government of South Sudan is only to facilitate negotiations, as happened in Berlin and Uganda. […] “The only platform for Darfur is Doha and for the Two Areas Addis Ababa.”

Omar said that the terms of reference of the negotiations will be the old references and there will be no new ones.

On Monday, the government announced that President Salva Kiir of South Sudan would mediate to settle the dispute in South Kordofan and Blue Nile and to unify the military and political factions of the movement to achieve peace in the so-called Two Areas.

That day the Assistant to Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, Feisal Ibrahim, reiterated the commitment of the government delegation to conduct political negotiations simultaneously with the issue of humanitarian assistance and security arrangements, and expected the resumption of negotiations in December.

“None of the parties to the conflict has received an official invitation to go to Juba so far.”

Omar said that they had not received any invitation to sit with the rebel leaders of armed opposition groups in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan in consultations in Juba. But he said that when they are invited, they have no objection to go.

The leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, Jibril Ibrahim, confirmed to Radio Dabanga that they also have not received an official invitation to go to Juba so far, but that they heard about it through the media.

Ibrahim, as the other rebel leaders of the SPLM-N and the SLM-MM, have welcomed the mediation initiative.

“Stability in the north can only be achieved by stability in the south and vice versa. It is, therefore, very natural that the president of South Sudan should take a special initiative, after the people of the north took their part in this direction.”

He added that President Salva Kiir's initiative has not been fully developed and not yet been defined and therefore called on the regional and international platforms which are overseeing the mediation processes, to coordinate between the initiatives.

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the meeting between the Sudanese government and the other faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N) over the resumption of peace negotiations concluded without significant progress on Thursday.