The United States proposed on Friday that the United Nations Security Council blacklist South Sudan opposition figure Riek Machar, South Sudan army chief Paul Malong and South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei. The United States circulated the three names to the 15-member council in an annex, seen by Reuters, to a draft resolution that would place an arms embargo on the world's newest nation amid warnings by a senior U.N. official of possible genocide. If designated by the council, the men would be subjected to a global asset freeze and travel ban. However, Russia and China, members with council veto powers, have both voiced opposition to an arms embargo and further targeted sanctions. Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Petr Iliichev said on Thursday that sanctions against South Sudanese leaders would "be the height of irresponsibility now." Political rivalry between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting has continued and Machar fled the country in July.
