Heading the Egyptian delegation to the joint Egyptian-Sudanese Committee, Foreign Minister Nabil El-Arabi is planning a visit to Sudan within the next few days. "It is scheduled for Thursday but there could be some slight adjustment," said an Egyptian diplomat. The foreign minister might be accompanied by other ministers to review developments between Egypt and Sudan. "We are currently examining a wide range of economic, agricultural and cultural forms of cooperation," said the same diplomat. Cairo believes that expanding cooperation with Khartoum is necessary ahead of the anticipated separation between North and South Sudan on 9 July. This cooperation, say Egyptian officials, would consolidate the strength of the clearly weakening Sudanese state. "For Khartoum the challenge is not just one of the separation of South Sudan with the consequent decline of oil revenues; it is also the potential extension of the conflict in Darfur (west Sudan) and the tension in the east of the country," said one official. During his talks in Khartoum, El-Arabi will seek to lend support to Sudanese officials during the next phase of separation. He will also examine the possibility of an Egyptian mediation between North and South Sudan over the status of Abyei, a disputed oil rich zone on the borders between the North and South. It is widely expected that the settlement of this conflict will take a while and that eventually the Khartoum regime will have to give in to the wider demand in Abyei to be part of the new Republic of South Sudan. The visit of El-Arabi would probably be the last of a senior Egyptian official to the "unified" Sudan. Egypt is already working on the transformation of its consulate in Juba, the capital of the southern region, into an embassy. "After North Sudan, Egypt will be the first country to recognize South Sudan,"said the same Egyptian diplomat. Egypt is hoping to establish a wide range of cooperative projects with both the North and South. This, Cairo is hoping, will reduce the chances of renewed military confrontation between the two sides. Meanwhile, Cairo is keeping a close eye on the clearly volatile political situation in the North, whereby the opponents of the regime of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, both Islamist and secular, seem to be hard at work to challenge the continuity of this regime. Al-Bashir is already faced with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over charges of war crimes in Darfur, and splits within his own regime are already monitored by many foreign diplomats in Khartoum. Stability in Sudan is crucial for Egyptian national security. Egypt is particularly wary of a renewed war in Sudan that could hinder its Nile water supplies. It is also apprehensive of a huge wave of refugees that could result from any potential military conflicts either in the North or between the North and the South.
