S. Sudan Faces Sanctions as Peace Deal Tears up

By Staff Writer

The United States circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday August 19 proposing an arms embargo and targeted international sanctions against conflict-torn South Sudan unless a ceasefire deal is signed by President Kiir to end hostilities between the government and the rebels.

This follows a decision by the country’s President Salva Kiir to abandon peace talks with South Sudanese rebels on Monday. Rebel leader Riek Machar has already signed the peace deal; but, the South Sudanese government has rejected it, describing it as a “sell-out,” a day after returning from the internationally-mediated peace talks in Ethiopia.

Washington’s proposed sanctions come as President Kiir has reportedly acknowledged to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call that he would sign the peace deal after “a couple of more days.”

Peter Wilson, Britain’s deputy ambassador to the UN said the UNSC is expected to vote on the resolution “as soon as possible.”

The draft resolution would kick in only if Kiir continues to delay signing the peace accord past the September 1 deadline to do so, according to a US official.

The US State Department said Kiir had told Secretary of State John Kerry that he has "every intention" of signing the agreement.

"He said he needed a couple more days of consultations buthe made it very clear that it was his intention to sign," a spokesman said.

Australian U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, president of the Security Council this month, also declined to comment on the likely timing of any sanctions moves. But he told reporters his country and several other council members supported the idea of making an arms embargo part of any South Sudan sanctions regime.

African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,also added her weight when she  reportedly warned South Sudan's warring parties will bring "disaster" on themselves and the region if no peace deal is signed to end the country’s civil war. 

South Sudan has been torn by fighting between forces loyal to Kiir and rebels allied with Machar, his former deputy, since December 2013 and the violence has exploded along ethnic lines.