US ramps up Sudan diplomacy ahead of referendum

Calling the north-south situation a "ticking time-bomb", five years after a peace deal ending a two-decade-old civil war, Clinton said Washington is "ramping up" efforts to resolve the differences between the two sides.

Clinton, according to spokesman Philip Crowley, spoke Wednesday by telephone with Sudan's vice president Ali Osman Taha and southern leader Salva Kiir to encourage them to implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and prepare for the referendum.
 
And Clinton, speaking to foreign policy experts, said the United States is not just involving President Omar al-Beshir's government and the southern leadership, but also the African Union and South Africa as well as European players Britain and Norway.
  
"It's really all hands on deck, so that we're trying to convince the North and South and all the other interested parties who care about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to weighing in to getting this done," she said.
 
"But the real problem is, what happens when the inevitable happens and the referendum is passed and the South declares independence?" she said.
 
"I mean, if you're in the north, and all of a sudden you think a line's going to be drawn and you're going to lose 80 percent of the oil revenues, you're not a very enthusiastic participant."
 
She said the United States therefore is working with both regional and international partners to "figure out some ways to make it worth their while (in the north) to peacefully accept an independent South."
 
The South will also have to make "some accommodations" with the north "unless they want more years of warfare," she warned.