Arab League hails Sudan-South Sudan agreements

The Arab League General Assembly on Friday welcomed in a statement the agreements regarding security and cooperation reached between Sudan and South Sudan, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported. The pan-Arab group said it trusts the good intentions of the two neighbors will settle the pending issues between them, according to MENA. Also, the Arab League strongly called on the international community to help and support the two countries, particularly South Sudan, which is confronted by a host of economic challenges. Meanwhile, the Egyptian government also welcomed the progress in negotiations aimed at settling the pending issues between the two countries, MENA reported, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Roshdy. He said the deals are an important step and mark a genuine progress in the two countries' talks addressing the outstanding issues between them. Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan, Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir Mayardit, held talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa from Sunday to Thursday in a bid to conclude the prolonged negotiations by their delegations under the mediation of the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP). After five days of talks, the two countries inked three deals respectively on cooperation, security, and post-secession issues in the presence of the members of the AUHIP. Some persisting issues troubling the two countries, including the border disputes and economic matters (oil- and trade-related), are covered in the deal regarding the post-secession issues. Sudan and South Sudan have been negotiating for months in Addis Ababa over many outstanding issues including oil sharing, border demarcation and ownership of the disputed oil-rich area of Abyei.