Ethiopia seeks to end Juba-Khartoum oil crisis

Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir held a negotiating session with South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Friday in Addis Ababa, according to sources. The sources said that the parties failed to reach an agreement to allow Juba can export its oil through the North’s pipelines, despite the pressure mounted by the African leaders who attended the summit in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who is the current chair of the African Union (AU), spent several hours trying to convince Al-Bashir and Kiir to reach common grounds on the issue. Zenawi, along with Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and chairman of the AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki, listened to both positions on the oil dispute before coming to the conclusion that the gap between the two sides is difficult to fill. However the Ethiopian premier told the two leaders that, although he respects their points of view, they will have no other choices but that of signing the AUHIP proposal, as the commission could not figure out any other solution. After several hours of frantic deliberations Bashir and Kiir agreed to sign a temporary agreement, after consulting with their delegations. The head of South Sudan negotiations Pagan Amum vehemently denied that Kiir gave Zenawi his blessings by saying that this a “lie”. He pointed that Kiir never agreed and came to the summit to inform the leaders about his position on the matter. Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti said that Kiir’s stance generated harsh criticism from African leaders. Zenawi said the two sides had not agreed on a deal yet, but pointed that the oil's issue will remain on the agenda in Addis Ababa, where the leaders of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia also met. "It was agreed that the two parties would continue their negotiations during the summit. We have not come to a conclusions yet," he told reporters.