20110322
Xinhua
KHARTOUM, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is to hold a session on Monday on Sudan's Abyei issue, viewpoints in the Sudanese political arena differ over the move and its effects regarding the issue of the disputed oil-rich area.

The Sudanese government has contacted with the permanent and non-permanent UNSC members to clarify its vision towards the issue, and the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarded the UNSC session as "unjustified escalation" by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and contradicted what was agreed upon by the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the south Sudan leader Salva Kiir Mayardit.

Spokesman of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khalid Musa said on Monday that the Sudanese presidency has adopted measures and reached an agreement between President al-Bashir and Salva Kiir to resolve the Abyei issue.

He further stressed the government adherence to the peaceful solution to the issue through negotiation and to the Kadogli agreement regarding Abyei, which stipulated withdrawal of the police forces from Abyei.

The Sudanese government appreciated the stance of the southern Sudan government that the Abyei issue could not be resolved through a unilateral action but through agreement and political dialogue.

The UNSC is expected to hold a session in New York later Monday on the issue of Abyei, which is disputed over by north and south Sudan and in the presence of the Sudan government partners, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the SPLM.

The SPLM delegation to the meeting would be led by the SPLM Secretary General and Minister of Peace in south Sudan government Pagan Amum, while the NCP delegation would be led by the Sudanese Presidential Advisor for Security Affairs Salah Abdalla Gosh.

Sudanese analysts, however, differ on the UNSC session on Abyei. Some believed that it could boost the efforts to settle the issue while others warned that it could possibly complicate the dispute by adding an international dimension to the crisis.

Mohamed Hassan Saeed, a Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua that "the UNSC session can help in coordinating the ongoing efforts by the African mediator Thabo Mbeki to reach a solution regarding Abyei."

Since the NCP and the SPLM have agreed on good interventions by the international community, the session's outcome could lead to a satisfactory solution through supporting the suggestions presented by Mbeki, he added.

However, Khalid Abdalla Dirar, a Sudanese lecturer of political sciences at Al-Rasid Center for Strategic Studies in Khartoum, believed that the international dimension would likely to complicate the situation and increase the gap between north and south Sudan.

"In previous issues, external interventions were not positive. There is a permanent assumption that the international community usually supports one party at the cost of the other, which could aggravate the conflict," Dirar told Xinhua.

"As we know, the Hague arbitration court has issued a decision on Abyei, but even that decision did not receive the agreement of the two sides and I do not expect that the UNSC session would succeed in reaching a political solution that leads to ending the dispute," he said.

Tension has mounted in recent weeks between north and south Sudan regarding the future of Abyei where a series of clashes took place between Mesiria and Dinka Nkok tribes which claim their ownership of the area.

Speculation is spreading that the clashes over the control of the Abyei area and its petroleum would further complicate the ongoing efforts by all parties in south Sudan to complete separation of the region in July 2011.

The Abyei area lies some 50 km from Bahral-Arab, a small river between north and south Sudan, where a mixture of Arab and African tribes live, most of them are pastoral tribes and each tribe claims its historical sovereignty over the area and regards the others as strangers.

A referendum was supposed to be held at the Abyei area coincident with the south Sudan referendum, but the difference between the NCP and the SPLM on the voters' identity recognition in the referendum delayed the Abyei referendum.