Bashir: Security must come before peace with South Sudan
Sudan and South Sudan need peace and Khartoum is committed to all security agreements it has signed, African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki on Saturday quoted the Sudanese leader as saying after talks.
“President Bashir confirmed that he believes the two nations… are in need of peace,” Mbeki said in a statement following a meeting with Omar al-Bashir.
The meeting capped two days of talks with Sudanese officials as Mbeki tries to push Sudan and South Sudan back to negotiations, which were suspended after border fighting last month.
He was expected to continue his diplomacy in the South Sudanese capital Juba on Sunday.
Sudan and South Sudan did not comply with a United Nations Security Council demand that they resume the talks by last Wednesday, but Mbeki and other diplomats were nonetheless trying to get negotiations restarted.
The South has said it is ready to talk and accused Khartoum of stalling.
The May 2 Security Council resolution made a number of other demands in an effort to avert a “serious threat to international peace and security” caused by the situation along their disputed border.
It called on both sides to establish a “Safe Demilitarised Border Zone” of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) and jointly begin monitoring the frontier, in
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Category: Khartoum
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