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Russia undecided on US proposed draft resolution on South Sudan

The US proposed a draft resolution on imposition of an arms embargo and expansion of sanctions against South Sudan

UNITED NATIONS, August 21 /TASS/. Russia has its reservations concerning the US proposed draft resolution on imposition of an arms embargo and expansion of sanctions against South Sudan, Pyotr Ilyichev, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, told journalists on Thursday.

The Russian side is to receive the final instructions from Moscow on Friday.

"We have concerns, we have reservations. We need to study everything carefully because the resolution is complicated with many components," the diplomat said.

"We are supposed to receive the instructions tomorrow," Ilyichev stressed.

Under the US draft resolution distributed on Wednesday, the sanctions will become effective automatically as of September 1, if South Sudanese President Salva Kiir refuses to sign a peace agreement with the rebels and a ceasefire regime fails to come into force.

Ilyichev confirmed that the US proposal suggested imposing sanctions both against the government and the insurgents. "But the Americans have not yet announced the names of people whom they would like to subject to sanctions," he explained adding that the list would be added to the draft resolution as a supplement.

Ilyichev did not name a concrete date when the draft could be put to vote.

"The Americans want to do that tomorrow. But we do not understand how they can finalize such a complicated resolution in such a short period of time," he said. According to him, when Russia suggests some of its ideas to the US, it takes much more time for it to coordinate its decision.

The authorities in South Sudan refused to sign a peace agreement with the armed insurgents in Addisa Beba last Monday and took a 15-day pause for consultations. The next day, the rebels led by Former Vice-President Riek Machar said that the government troops had attacked their positions in Imatong area.

A bloody conflict flared up in South Sudan in December 2013. It has claimed about 10,000 human lives by now. More than 2.2 million people have fled their homes.

Early in July this year, the UN Security Council imposed travel bans on three representatives of the South Sudanese army and three rebel chieftains linked to inciting the conflict in the country and froze their bank accounts.

Russia did not object to those sanctions though it described the step as counter-productive.