JUBA, South Sudan — Sudan's threat to shut down South Sudan's oil exports over its alleged support for rebels in Sudan will not spark a return to armed hostility as long as Sudan respects a security agreement reached earlier this year, a South Sudanese military official said Monday. South Sudanese army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said, however, that any violations of an African Union-mediated pact signed in March would be taken as an act of provocation. “The oil can be shut down,” he said from Juba, South Sudan's capital. “What may amount to a declaration of war is if the security agreements that have been reached are violated. Oil is just a bilateral agreement which the Sudanese government has the choice to accept or not to accept.” Aguer said Sudan had yet to implement President Omar Al-Bashir recent order to close pipelines carrying South Sudan's oil exports over charges the government in Juba supports armed rebels seeking to topple the Sudan's government. Mohammed Atta Al-Moula, Sudan's spy chief, told reporters on Sunday that the country also will suspend its security and economic pacts with South Sudan if the country does not end its alleged support for rebels who recently have mounted attacks on the Sudanese army. South Sudan —which also accuses Sudan of supporting a rebel group led by a former South Sudanese army colonel named David Yau Yau —denies backing Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, or SPLM-N, rebels. “We are not helping any rebels,” Aguer said. “The allegations are baseless. It's just because they have been unable to defeat the rebels that they are looking for an explanation elsewhere.” — AP
