South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has vowed not to meet or hold any talks with former First Vice President Dr Riek Machar Teny saying that the latter should first denounce violence.

Kiir was meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who is also the mediator of the reunification of SPLA factions in Africa’s youngest nation.

“People have been coming to me saying I should meet with Riek as the part of confidence building for the national dialogue. I told them I have no personal problem with Riek and he himself can attest that by how I treated him at J1 in July 2016,” Kiir reportedly told Museveni.

He told Museveni that reunification of the ruling Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement [SPLM] and reconciliation should proceed without Machar if he [Machar] insists on renegotiation of the 2015 peace deal instead of implementing it.

“This was the agreement he wanted to be implemented. So why call for renegotiation? He says the agreement has died. Is it because he is not the government? The agreement was not between individuals. It was between the parties and that is why it is still being implemented even when he decided to cause unhealthy working relations so that I am seen as having no interest in its implementation. But what happened after he was replaced?” asked Kiir.

The South Sudanese leader said issues that could have been in two months took less than a week because there was a spirit for cooperation which came with Taban Deng Gai and his group.

Gai, a former rebel chief negotiator, replaced Machar as the First Vice-President when the latter fled the capital, Juba in July last year.

“If he [Machar] had demonstrated this cooperation we have today with Taban, the issues which could not resolve would have been resolved and there would not have been war”, explained Kiir.