Talks aimed at determining the number and boundaries of states will resume next week in Juba, a senior opposition official said Thursday.

Last month, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar agreed to hold more talks on all the outstanding issues in January.

Both sides last month expressed hope that South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza, who mediates the talks on the number of states, could play a big role in bridging their divergent viewpoints.

Josephine Joseph Lagu, leader of a faction of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), told Radio Tamazuj that they have been invited to resume talks on pending tasks next Wednesday.

"A three-day meeting will be facilitated by South Africa’s deputy president, so we hope that the parties to the peace agreement will reach an agreement," she said.

"We have received the invitation letter and we will be part of next week’s meeting. We hope that there will be a solution because we are left with only two positions to be considered in the next meeting," she added.

Josephine pointed out that the opposition offered compromises at the meetings which ended last month, saying they demand for creation of 23 states plus the Abyei administration area.

"We want to be optimistic that there will be a solution to this outstanding issue. What we want is to bring peace and stability to our country," she said.

The leading opposition official has called on South Sudan leaders to put the country first in all their aspirations before personal ambitions.

"We have to prioritize the provision of better services, so this is what we are looking at," she said.

South Sudan's main opposition group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO), on Monday called for the resumption of talks on the outstanding issues.

The rival parties have twice failed to form the unity government, first in May 2019 and then in November the same year, when they agreed to give themselves100 days to resolve disputed issues and form a unity government by 22 February 2020.

 Under the terms of the peace deal, the parties are to create a unified army and agree on the number and boundaries of states.