On
Heglig,
Question of
Who's Winning
Dodged in DC,
Like Oil Fees
&
Pronunciation
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
WASHINGTON
DC,
April 20 --
Early Friday
morning the
Mission of
Sudan to the
UN
called Inner
City Press to
say, come to
the Security
Council
stakeout
to hear our
Ambassador
announce our
"recapture of
Heglig."
There
were
several
problems: was
the pullout
voluntary,
thus returning
to South
Sudan the
moral high
ground they
have long been
possessed?
Also,
Inner City
Press was
covering the
International
Monetary Fund
and
World Bank
Spring
Meetings in
Washington.
A
couple hours
later and a
few blocks
away from the
fenced-off
IMF, Inner
City Press
asked US State
Department
spokespersons
Victoria
Nuland if the
US
thought that
this was a
military
victory or
recovery by
Khartoum, or
if South
Sudanese
President
Salva Kiir was
leaving Heglig
voluntarily
in response to
the calls of,
among others,
the US.
Nuland
had a
prepared
statement, but
began amiably,
"Let me start
with
pronunciation,
my guys are
saying Heglig,
with the first
part said like
"leg."
Then she read
out, "We
welcome the
announcement
by South Sudan
they will
withdraw from
Heglig" - now
said
"hedge-leej"
-- "we are
calling on
government of
Sudan to halt
aerial
bombardments."
She
said that US
envoy
"Princeton
Lyman he
briefed some
of you by
telephone
yesterday."
Earlier, Inner
City Press
asked the
State
Department
about the
transcript and
invitation
list for that
briefing, in
which
the idea,
raised by the
Thabo Mbeki
panel, that
South Sudan
might be
aiming at
regime change,
now by
stopping
Sudan's
remaining oil
production,
was not
raised. Nor
was that part
of Nuland's
answer.
Back
at the IMF,
Inner City
Press asked
the Fund's
Middle East
and North
Africa guru
Masood Ahmed
about the
Sudans' oil
transfer fee
dispute; he
asked
that the
question be
emailed and it
was:
"Sudan
diplomats
say they want
$34 a barrel
transfer fee,
South Sudan
offers
some 40 cents,
citing example
of Chad to
Cameroon, and
Azerbaijan to
Turkey. What
is the IMF's
view of this
oil transfer
fee issue? And
on
the impact of
stopping oil
pumping and
destroying the
Heglig field?"
We
will publish
the IMF's
answer, and
any thing more
provided by
the State
Department,
upon receipt.
Watch this
site.
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