Sudan announces suspension of nine agreements with South Sudan

Sudan on June 9 announced the suspension of nine security and economic agreements, including the oil deal it signed with South Sudan last March.

"We will terminate all nine agreements, not just oil-related, with South Sudan," Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said at a press conference, but insisted that Khartoum remained committed to good relations with its hostile neighbor and "could restore cooperation if Juba is serious about implementing the nine agreements."

Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. (Source: Getty Images)

On the same day, Sudan's Intelligence Director Mohammed Atta accused South Sudan of continuing to support the Revolutionary Front rebels, most recently on June 7 when fuel trucks supplying the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels in South Kordofan state departed from South Sudan.

Mr. Atta also said that Sudanese rebels have training camps in South Sudan and are provided with weapons, ammunition, medical care and travel documents by the neighboring country.

The closure of the oil export pipeline is likely to last 60 days, according to Sudanese officials.

However, Mr. Atta said South Sudan has every right to sell the oil that has been transported to Port Sudan after repaying the outstanding transit fees to Khartoum.

Earlier, at a press conference held the same day, South Sudan said it would continue to cooperate with its northern neighbor despite the closure of South Sudan's oil export pipeline following an order on June 8 by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

South Sudan's Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the country would "continue to implement the terms of the cooperation agreement," while warning Khartoum of the risk of an explosion on the main oil pipeline from the Palouge oil field if it shuts it down too quickly.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for South Sudan's armed forces has accused Sudanese troops of crossing the demilitarized zone between the two countries and entering South Sudan's Upper Nile state.

Khartoum and Juba have agreed to resume South Sudanese oil exports through Sudanese pipelines as part of the implementation of cooperation agreements, signed in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa in 2012.

During talks in Ethiopia at the end of March, the two countries reached an agreement on a plan to resume oil exports as well as implementing eight other important agreements.

Since the two countries resumed oil and gas operations last May, about 6 million barrels of oil have been pumped through Sudan's pipeline system.

If oil exports were restored to normal, 250,000 to 350,000 barrels of oil would be pumped from South Sudan to Sudan every day, generating billions of dollars in revenue for the two economically struggling countries.

However, Khartoum has long accused South Sudan of fomenting separatism in the states of South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Dafour, which Juba has always denied./.

According to (TTXVN) - DT