Sudan says border dispute will beset ties with Egypt

Sudan's foreign minister says the border dispute with Egypt will remain a "potential irritant" in relations until it is resolved.

Speaking this week in an interview with the Sudanese TV channel Ashorooq, Ibrahim al-Ghandour also says the dispute is a "thorn in the side of relations" between the two Afro-Arab nations.

Sudan says Egypt is refusing to submit the dispute to international arbitration or enter direct negotiations over the fate of the region known as the "Halayeb Triangle."

Tension with Sudan have taken on added significance as Cairo works to secure the goodwill of Nile basin countries in the face of the threat posed to its vital share of the river's waters by a massive dam under construction in Ethiopia, where the river's largest tributary, the Blue Nile, originates.