Sudan, Egypt hold talks to ease tensions

Officials from Sudan and Egypt on Saturday held “honest” and “transparent” discussions following months of tension between the two Afro-Arab neighbors, but appeared to make little headway to patch up their differences, primarily over a border region held by Cairo and claimed by Khartoum.
Sudan’s visiting foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, and his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, spoke of the “holy” relations binding the two Nile-Basin nations, but reported no tangible progress in a joint news conference they held in the Egyptian capital after talks.
“There are deeply entrenched relations capable of overcoming whatever is inflicted upon them,” Shoukry said, striking a positive note. “We are working toward a frank dialogue capable of removing misunderstandings and confusion.”
At the center of tensions between the two is sovereignty over the so-called Halayeb Triangle on the Red Sea, an issue that dates back to colonial times. Egypt refuses to submit the dispute to international arbitration, a Sudanese request.