NAS welcomes outcome of Kiir-Machar meeting, says ready to negotiate

 

September 16th 2019 (Nyamilepedia)-The leadership of the National Salvation Front (NAS), a non-signatory group headed by Lt. Gen. Thomas Cirillo, has welcomed the recent outcome of face-to-face meetings President Salva Kiir Mayardit and main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar, calling on all holdout groups to join the ongoing peace process.

In a statement, the Chairman of the opposition faction, Thomas Cirillo, stated openly that his group is open and willing to negotiate, should anyone want to include them in the revitalized peace agreement.

“We are open to dialogue, we are open to negotiation; we are open to engage in talks with Juba or whoever wants to help South Sudan to achieve a sustainable peace,” he said.

“We will wait for them if they are serious so that we sit down and discuss the root causes of the conflict. We welcome their statement that they want to talk to the holdout groups,” he stressed.

The statement came a week, during a face-to-face meeting between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar, where the two leaders expressed willingness to engage non-signatories and get them involved in the R-ARCSS signed in September last year.