Sudan declines to withdraw its UNSC complaint over disputed Halayeb triangle

June 2, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s permanent envoy to the United Nations Omer Dahab said his country refused to withdraw the complaint it lodged to the UN Security Council (UNSC) over the disputed Halayeb triangle with Egypt.

The Halayeb triangle overlooks the Red Sea and has been a contentious issue between Egypt and Sudan since 1958, shortly after Sudan gained independence from British-Egyptian rule.

The area has been under Cairo’s full military control since the mid-1990’s following a Sudanese backed attempt on former Egyptian president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak’s life. Egypt brushed aside Sudan’s repeated calls for referring the dispute to international arbitration.

According to Al-Sudani newspaper Wednesday, Dahab said that Halayeb’s file at the UNSC is under consideration but he didn’t elaborate on the next move that his country is intending to make.

Meanwhile, Chargé d’affaires at the Sudanese mission to the UN, Hassan Hamid Hassan has sent a letter on 23 May to the president of the UNSC in May and Egypt’s permanent envoy to the UN Amro Abu Al-Atta protesting against the continued measures to “Egyptianize” the disputed triangle.

According to the London-based Alquds Alarabi newspaper, the letter, which was sent from Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour to his Egyptian counterpart Samih Shukry, discussed the “continued moves and measures by the Egyptian government to Egyptianize Halayeb triangle”.

Also, the Sudanese government expressed its desire to circulate and consider the letter and its attachment as a UNSC document.

“Within the context of the ongoing contacts between us [Sudan and Egypt] which aim to promote and enhance ties between our two friendly nations, I’d like to express to you our deep concern over the accelerated Egyptian measures to Egyptianize the triangle of Halayeb-Shlateen-Abu Ramad … We totally reject those measures including laying the foundation for premises belonging to the Ministry of Justice as well as building a number of facilities and services projects including water desalination plants, solar projects, power grid, and religious schools and institutes,” read the letter.

“I‘d like to repeat that we categorically reject the establishment of the Egyptian installations on the Sudanese territory in Halayib - Shalateen - Abu Ramad and we also repeat our call for holding bilateral talks or to agree to [refer the case] to arbitration for a better future for the two friendly peoples,” it added.

Relations between Sudan and Egypt have been frosty over the past few years, but they’ve recently begun to thaw thanks to a series of conciliatory diplomatic gestures.

In October 2014, Presidents of the two countries upgraded representation in a joint committee aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.