South Sudan President Salva Kiir held "frank deliberations" with opposition leader and First Vice President Riek Machar on Friday, March 10, the minister of presidential affairs said.

The meeting was held in a collegial spirit, but ended in deadlock, Machar's office said in a statement. This came two days after Kiir, on March 8, sacked his foreign minister, less than a week after the dismissal of the ministers of defence and interior.

"The leaders had frank deliberations in a friendly atmosphere that reflected the spirit of reconciliation, prosperity and commitment to the peace agreement," presidential affairs minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said in a statement.

"The two principals agreed in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation to convene another meeting at a later date to find amicable solutions on these issues," Marial said.

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"It&039;s a normal business. People can be relieved and replaced," Kiir's spokesperson Lily Martin Manyiel is quoted.

Kiir earlier fired his government's Defence and Interior ministers in a move that goes against the terms of a peace agreement signed in 2018 with opposition party leader and First Vice President, Riek Machar.

Kiir fired the country's defence minister Angelina Teny, a leading member of the opposition SPLM-IO led by Machar who is also the latter's wife, and interior minister, Mahmoud Solomon, a member of the SPLM party, in a presidential order read on state TV, Manyiel said on March 4.