Regional heads of state including Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta proposed that Machar returns as vice president to Kiir, whose allies would occupy 60 percent of positions in a transitional government, Ann Norman, who’s handling public relations for Machar, said in an e-mailed statement.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a seven-member regional bloc mediating the talks in Ethiopia, “is imposing a solution, no discussion, no negotiating,” she said on Thursday. “They have also said there will be no more discussion, the two parties must accept or face immediate action.”

Fighting broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 after Kiir accused rivals including Machar of plotting a coup and army commanders rebelled in three states. Clashes have killed thousands of people and forced about 2 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

The deal suggested by IGAD has “completely killed” an accord signed last week to reunify South Sudan’s fractured ruling party, said Norman, the managing director of Norman Communications. Machar has called for Kiir to step down for leading the country into crisis through what he calls his increasingly dictatorial rule.

Power Arrangements

“Museveni is leading this effort to ensure that Kiir stays in power,” Norman said. “Nothing much changes in the power arrangements currently.”

Museveni declined to comment on Machar’s allegations in an interview in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday. He said that it was a question for IGAD’s chairman, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Kiir’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, said talks were adjourned on Thursday because “things became sticky” after Machar requested “concurrent power” with the president. Negotiations will resume on Saturday, he said by phone from South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

The African Union’s security panel said late Thursday that “action would be taken” against the parties if an agreement isn’t reached by Saturday afternoon. IGAD has threatened to impose sanctions and bar from “future governance arrangements” those who block the peace process. It also said it may militarily intervene to resolve the crisis.

‘Critical Time’

The AU won’t publish a key report on the conflict and atrocities during this critical time in negotiations, Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said. Machar’s movement wants the AU to publish the report, which they believe will show “Kiir as having indeed incited this war,” Norman said. Kiir’s administration doesn’t have a problem with publication, Ateny said. “It’s not a matter of the government of South Sudan,” he said.

The report’s authors “hope” that a quick peace deal “will be immediately followed” by its publication, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who headed the investigations, said on Friday. “It is our fervent hope that the recommendations contained in the report will be implemented to ensure healing, reconciliation and accountability and sustainable good governance in South Sudan,” he told reporters in Ethiopia’s capital.

Norman Communications, which says it has offices in the U.S. and Sierra Leone, represents “clients with diverse interests in the U.S. and throughout Africa.” Previous clients include the Food and Agriculture Organization and it also worked on “Blood Diamond,” a 2006 film set during Sierra Leone’s civil war, according to the company’s website.