Monday’s statement challenges the agreement reached by the visiting U.N. Security Council, which has threatened an arms embargo if turbulent South Sudan doesn’t comply.
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Kiir had opposed the deployment of additional troops as breaching national sovereignty. The U.N. already has 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, and South Sudan has been wary of giving it more authority.
To improve the security situation, the Transitional Government of National Unity gave its consent to the deployment, as part of UNMISS, of the Regional Protection Force recently authorized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2304.
Both sides to the conflict have been accused of obstructing peacekeeping operations, while the peacekeepers have been accused of not doing enough to protect civilians from attacks and abuse.
In Addis Ababa, UN and African diplomats also discussed a proposed 4,000-strong UN protection force for South Sudan.
Lomoro said the transitional government of national unity commits to devising a plan with UNMISS by the end of September on concrete steps to remove impediments to UNMISS’s ability to implement its mandate, including reviewing procedures related to movement of UNMISS and streamlining bureaucratic processes.
Samantha Power, the U.S. envoy to the Security Council, said it was now time to implement the agreement.
“What we need to do now is move from those very important high-level commitments into working up the modalities in an operational way”, she said. “The number one obstacle for (the peacekeepers) fulfilling their mandate to this point has been the severe restrictions on their movements”.
Senegal’s ambassador to the UN, Fode Seck, said it has been hard getting enough troops pledged by regional countries to make up the force.
Hundreds were killed and thousands were displaced, while Machar, a former first vice president, fled after the outbreak of violence.
Kiir also said his rival, Machar, who fled the country after the July fighting and is now in neighboring Sudan, can’t return to the country until the next election cycle, the United Nations official and diplomat said. He is now in Khartoum and has been replaced by Taban Deng Gai.
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He argued that the opposition forces of the SPLA-IO loyal to Machar are far more disciplined than the forces loyal to Kiir, saying this was demonstrated during the recent fighting in Juba where no opposition forces involved in the looting of civilians in the locations they briefly controlled in the capital, including Gudele area to the west.
