By Bida Elly David
President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the First Vice President Dr Riek Machar Teny meeting yesterday ended in a deadlock as the two longtime rivals leaders failed to reach possible resolutions to the political standoff concerning the unilateral removal of defence minister and swapping of the ministries of defence and that of the interior.
The two key principals to the Revitalized Peace Agreement and the unity government however agreed to reconvene for another meeting at a later date yet to be set to brainstorm further on reaching an amicable resolution of the impasses.
After the closed-door meeting between the two leaders, the office’s first vice president in a statement issued on Friday evening on its Facebook page revealed that the meeting between Riek and Kiir ended in a deadlock.
“The Office of the First Vice President, H.E. Dr Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/SPLA (IO), would like to inform the general public that, the two Principals (President Salva Kiir and Dr Riek Machar) met at J1 today (Friday) and discussed the recent unilateral Decree and the Republican Order issued last week that relieved Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs and swapped two ministries without consultations between the parties. The meeting ended in deadlock” the statement read.
It however noted that “the two Principals agreed to meet again at a later date in the hope to resolve the deadlock in the spirit of collegial manner, as prescribed in the R-ARCSS”.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, presidential affairs minister, Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin in his briefing to the media as posted on the presidential Facebook page yesterday evening said the two leaders agreed to jointly work towards implementing the Revitalized Agreement on the resolution of Conflict in South Sudan(R-ARCSS).
Marial, also affirmed that the two leaders agreed to discuss and resolve their differences at a later date without any specific date selected for the next meeting.
He noted that the two principals’ discussion focused much on not waging arms against each other and creating tension among themselves.
“President Salva Kiir and the first vice president on Friday met to discuss the status of the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, R-ARCSS. The two Principals agreed in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation to convene another meeting at a later date to find amicable solutions on these issues,” he said.
According to minister Marial, the two leaders discussed in a friendly and peaceful manner and generated their recommendations based on good faith and spirit of wanting the Country to be in total amity.
He said that the two principals were determined as both discussed frankly reflecting reconciliation and eagerness for everlasting peace.
“The two principals discussed the status of the Revitalized Peace Agreement in regard to the recent swapping of the ministries. The two leaders had frank deliberations in a friendly atmosphere that reflected the spirit of reconciliation, prosperity and commitment to the peace agreement,” Marial said
Despite the meeting between the two leaders, political analysts and citizens still question the legality of doing things without correlating with the accord document.
Last week, the government swapped two ministries, the Ministry of Defense to the SPLM party and the Ministry of Interior to SPLM-IO through a Presidential decree.
Political analysts said that the ongoing crisis between president Kiir and his first deputy was becoming a faltering chunk to the peace roadmap as both seemed to have been acting against the agreed peace encyclical set to resolve the conflict.
They said that the decree on the swapping of ministries and relieving leaders has triggered questions as citizens remain shaken by the predetermined security future of the nation.
Abraham Kuol Nyuon a political analyst who earlier spoke to the No.1.citizen daily newspaper suggested that the duo should look into amicable solutions to mitigate conflict.