International Concerns over South Sudan’s Kiir, Machar Disagreement Leading to War

Women and children wait to be registered to a food distribution of the World Food Programme, South Sudan (File photo: Reuters)
Women and children wait to be registered to a food distribution of the World Food Programme, South Sudan (File photo: Reuters)
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International Concerns over South Sudan’s Kiir, Machar Disagreement Leading to War

Women and children wait to be registered to a food distribution of the World Food Programme, South Sudan (File photo: Reuters)
Women and children wait to be registered to a food distribution of the World Food Programme, South Sudan (File photo: Reuters)

The international and regional community fear war will erupt again in South Sudan, following escalations between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Vice President Riek Machar who disagreed on how to share regional states between them, despite the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, South Sudan ended five years of civil war over Mayardit - Machar power sharing struggle, which later became an ethnic war between both their tribes that killed and displaced thousands.

The president’s office announced that a meeting concluded the leadership of six of the 10 states would go to Kiir’s side, three would go to Machar’s side and one would go to an alliance aligned with neither Kiir nor Machar.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), led by Machar, rejected the presidency’s decision to allocate states, indicating it was not taken by consensus.

“It does not take into consideration the relative prominence each party has in each of the respective states or counties.”

Machar issued a statement, of which Asharq Al-Awsat received a copy, indicating that the decision issued by the President’s office did not take into account “parties’ domination in every state or province.”

Machar explained that SPLM-IO is very popular in Upper Nile State, and the government or the coalition of parties known as ‘Sawa’ do not have the right to control the state, referring to an article in the peace agreement calling for taking into account the popularity of the parties when sharing power in the states.

Machar asked the heads of state group of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and its envoy in Juba to intervene to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

For its part, the group of other political parties strongly rejected the presidential decision regarding power-sharing in the states and considered it a clear violation of the peace agreement.

They threatened to withdraw from the transitional government and said, in a statement, that they were given 8 percent of the states which means they are trying to exclude them

A senior analyst with Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group, Alan Boswell, said the disagreement between Kiir and Machar endangered the gains made so far toward a lasting peace.

“South Sudan’s new unity government is facing its biggest crisis yet, as negotiations broke down on how to share power in state and local governments across the country,” he said in a statement.

Boswell stressed that despite the attention of South Sudan’s international partners on the COVID-19 pandemic, quick action from regional leaders will be key so that this latest power squabbling doesn’t escalate.

South Sudan’s civil war claimed the lives of 400,000, triggered a famine and created Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan warned that the country’s revitalized peace deal is in jeopardy because the unity government’s partners are bickering over security control and resources.

The panel accused former government and opposition military leaders of forcefully recruiting children to boost the size of their forces.

The power of National Security Service agents remains unchecked and has been expanded to silence political and civic dissent, according to the panel.

It said security operatives continue to arbitrarily arrest, detain, and torture civilians in a prison near the Nile.

The report also accused both the government and the opposition of committing violations against human rights in central equatorial regions.

It also reported several incidents of looting and burning of civilian properties on an ethnic basis, and continued saying: “There are hotbeds of corruption and misuse of state funds, and that undermines political and security reforms.”



Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
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Iran Discloses New Details of Israeli Attempt to Assassinate Heads of Three Govt. Branches

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on Saturday evening (Iranian Presidency) 

The Fars news agency on Sunday disclosed new details of an assassination attempt that targeted a high-level meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council attended by heads of the three government branches and high-ranking officials during the 12-day war between Tehran and Tel Aviv.

Iran has launched a comprehensive investigation into the assassination attempt, and there is suspicion that an agent was involved, informed sources told the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated news agency.

Fars said that in the attack, “some officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving the meeting,” and added that they escaped through “an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance.”

The speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, were also said to have been in the meeting.

According to Fars, the attack occurred on Monday, June 16, at the lower levels of a secure government facility in western Tehran.

Fars said the attack was modeled after an Israeli plan to assassinate Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, involving the launch of six bombs or missiles aimed at entry and exit points to block evacuation routes and disrupt ventilation.

Following the explosions, power was cut to the targeted floor. However, Iranian officials reportedly managed to escape through a pre-designated emergency hatch.

In an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, the political commentator, Pezeshkian accused Israel of trying to assassinate him but did not admit to having being injured. “They did try, yes... They acted accordingly, but they failed,” he said.

Hours after the Fars news agency published its report, a spokesman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told the Nour News agency that “the Israeli attack on a secret meeting of the Council at a highly protected site, attended by heads of authorities and senior military and political leaders, set a dangerous precedent and sounded the alarm about the possibility of a security breach and the need to strengthen protection at the highest levels.”

“The attack is a dangerous threat to Iran not only in its timing and location, but also in the fact that it targeted one of the most secret and important meetings of the Iranian state,” the news agency wrote.

Vahid Jalili, the chief for cultural affairs and policy evolution at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the brother of Saeed Jalili, Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council, was the first to speak about the attack.

He said the meeting of heads of the government branches on June16 was targeted by Israeli attacks just hours before the missile strike on the broadcasting building.

In a related development, the wife of Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran during the 12-day war, said her husband received a phone call from his workplace, and headed there before he was killed.

In an interview with the Jamaran website, affiliated to the Khomeini Foundation, she said “Amir returned home from a ceremony, slept for about half an hour, before receiving the phone call.”

She added, “Our house was attacked after the dawn prayer.”