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Kerry keeps pressure on South Sudan rebel leader as fighting rages

04 May 2014 22:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened sanctions against South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar on Monday if he spurned peace negotiations, as government forces battled for control of the northern oil town of Bentiu, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Kerry flew to South Sudan on Friday to revive talks that have made scant progress in months. He secured a commitment from President Salva Kiir to fly to Ethiopia for face-to-face talks with Machar, who held off from promising to take part.

In a rare sign of progress in talks dogged by deep mutual mistrust, government and rebel negotiators in Ethiopia's capital said they had agreed to consider a "month of tranquillity", to start on Monday, and recommitted themselves to opening aid corridors.

Machar told the Sudan Tribune on Saturday he thought a face-to-face meeting with Kiir could be "counter-productive". But Kerry, who said he had read the interview, noted that Machar had not ruled out meeting his rival.

"He has a fundamental decision to make. If he decides not to and procrastinates, then we have a number of different options that are available to us," Kerry told reporters in Angola on the last stop of a nearly week-long trip to Africa.

The conflict erupted in mid-December after long political rivalry between Kiir and Machar, whom Kiir sacked as his deputy in July. The unrest has exacerbated tensions between their ethnic groups - Kiir's Dinka people and Machar's Nuer.

On Monday, the army and rebels both claimed control of Bentiu after two days of heavy fighting in the town, scene of an ethnic massacre last month which heightened fears of genocide in the world's newest nation.