The UN Security Council is putting pressure on President Salva Kiir warning that it was ready to “act immediately” if he does not sign a deal to end the country’s 20-month war.
President Salva Kiir is scheduled to sign the power-sharing agreement in Juba on Wednesday, alongside the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, but his spokesman said he had reservations on the latest peace deal.
South Sudan’s rebel leader Riek Machar signed the agreement a week ago but Kiir had only initialled the text and said he would return to the table in early September.
After meeting on the crisis in South Sudan, council members “expressed their readiness to act immediately if President Kiir does not sign the agreement on Wednesday as he has undertaken.
Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, who chairs the council this month says the council will take immediate action if he does not sign the deal.
The United States has presented a draft resolution that would impose an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on South Sudan if Kiir fails to sign the accord.
Russia and China have expressed doubts about the draft text as have some African countries, in particular over sanctions that would target those deemed as blocking the peace accord.
The United States has yet to submit a list of names of those who would be hit by an assets freeze and travel ban.
Russia, a veto-wielding member of the council, said there would be no need to adopt the resolution if Kiir signs the deal.The latest in a string of peace deals, the agreement commits both sides to implementing a “permanent ceasefire” within 72 hours after signing.
The deal gives rebels the post of first vice president, which means that Machar would likely return to the post he was sacked from in July 2013, six months before the war began.
To address months of horrific violence, the agreement calls for a truth and reconciliation commission to be established and a war crimes court in collaboration with the African Union.
The UN envoy to South Sudan, Ellen Margrethe Loej, told the council that a peace accord — if signed on Wednesday — was “only a first step” and that many hurdles lie ahead for the youngest nation in the world.
