President El-Bashir warns tension between Juba, Khartoum could lead to war - President Omar El-Bashir of Sudan has warned that tension between Juba and Khartoum, following unresolved post-independence issues, could lead to war between the two countries, but he pledged his government would not initiate it.

El-Bashir on Friday told a semi-independent television station that tension was currently so high between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan that the possibility of war was imminent.

When the interviewer asked whether he believes the tension could lead to war, El-Bashir said: 'Yes it is a possibility. But we will not resort to war unless it is imposed on us… the war was imposed on us in Abyei… in the Blue Nile … but we will not be the initiators of war.'

Sudan and South Sudan recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, failed to reach agreement on oil transactions -- an issue the two sides were not able to resolve before the independence of the south in 2011.

Pana 04/02/2012