South Sudan President Signs Long-Awaited Peace Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Wednesday signed a peace deal with rebels, after more than 20 months of fighting between the army and rebels led by his former deputy.
Kiir signed the agreement in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, in a ceremony witnessed by regional leaders. Kiir said he was signing the document despite having serious reservations. He signed the same agreement endorsed by rebel leader Riek Machar, said Kiir’s spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.
Machar, the former deputy president, signed the agreement last week in Ethiopia but Kiir refused, saying he needed more time, drawing condemnation from diplomats who want a quick deal to end the violence in the world’s newest country, according to a report by AP Thursday.
Kiir was under intense pressure to sign the compromise accord mediated by a group of neighboring countries, with the US threatening new UN sanctions if he failed to do so.
Signing the agreement Wednesday, Kiir said he felt the peace deal had been imposed on him and said it is flawed. Kiir said some aspects of the deal “are not in the interest of just and lasting peace.
“We had only one of the two options, the option of an imposed peace or the option of a continued war ... We are here talking about peace,” he said.
The agreement binds Kiir into a power-sharing arrangement with Machar, a political rival whose dismissal in July 2013 sparked a political crisis that later boiled over into a violent rebellion. The fighting has often been along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir’s ethnic Dinka people against Machar’s Nuer.
The accord calls for the establishment of a coalition government within 90 days. It also calls for a demilitarized Juba, one of the key sticking points for Kiir’s side during negotiations, and also delays national elections until 2018 at the earliest.
Previous cease-fires have been quickly broken, with both sides accusing the other of violations.
