Cooperation, not confrontation!

Khartoum-Juba armies spokespersons

Due to their failure, once again, to agree on tackling the issue of border demarcation, tensions have risen on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, which could lead, according to observers, to military confrontations and shattering of the fragile agreements inked between the two countries.

On yet another menacing exchange of accusations between the two countries, South Sudan's army claimed Khartoum bombed border areas in Upper Nile State, while Khartoum denied targeting any areas South Sudan, and accused Juba's army, in turn, of  amassing its forces and being poised to invade Sudan.

It did not stop there. Accusations took a different turn when the spokesman for the Government of South Sudan charged Sudan with stealing his country's oil. This serious accusation is likely to cast a pall over the coming round of talks, in general, and on the cooperation pact in particular.

Not only do these escalating tensions threaten the cooperation agreement signed by the two countries, but they could bring the two neighbors to the brink of war.

While the two may be using these accusations as a sort of bargaining chip in the ongoing talks; by accusing each other of unwillingness to reach agreement on key disputes, what is happening in fact is that both sides will bear a great deal of responsibility for needlessly creating the difficulties which will be sure to backfire on both.

It is becoming clearer by the day that both countries care little about the consequences of their actions that risk sanctions. They both realize, more so than the international community, that sanctions are not in their best interest. Nevertheless, they continue to insist on their stances and preconditions to activate the signed cooperation agreements, heedless, as they pretend to be, of the fact that both need oil to face their growing economic crisis.

The two sides should acknowledge the impact of the oil crisis on their economies, which are seeing sharply upward spiraling prices and currency collapse.

Accordingly, the major issue now is cooperation between the two states. 

Countless joint interests between the two states at both the political and economic level make it imperative that the two governments shift from "confrontation" to" cooperation", by establishing bilateral relations that guarantee peace and co-existence and prevent a return to war.