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News > Sudan

US Removes Sudan From State Sponsors of Terrorism List

  • Sudanese army, police and civil officers shout slogans during a protest in front of the Council of Ministers headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan. October 12, 2020.

    Sudanese army, police and civil officers shout slogans during a protest in front of the Council of Ministers headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan. October 12, 2020. | Photo: EFE/EPA/Mohammed Abu Obaid

Published 19 October 2020
Opinion

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would remove the African country from the list given the government in Khartoum's willingness to compensate the U.S. victims of former terrorist attacks.

In another re-election move, in a Twitter post on Monday, Trump said he vows to remove Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List after Sudan agreed to pay $335 million to "U.S. terror victims and families."

Al Jazeera correspondent in Khartoum Hiba Morgan said the development was "quite significant for the Sudanese administration and the people of Sudan. They believe that with Sudan removed from the list of the state sponsors of terrorism, the foreign investment will come, and the economy will improve,” she said.

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Since the transitional government in Sudan has been in power for the last fourteen months following the military's overthrow of longtime President Omar al-Bashir, the list's removal has been a top priority. 

Sudan was added to the list in 1993 over allegations that al-Bashir was supporting "terrorist" groups, a move that made Sudan technically ineligible for debt relief and much-needed financing from major international institutions. 

Procedurally, the U.S. Congress will need to approve the decision after being formally notified by the president.

Earlier in the day, Reuters learned from a U.S. government source that negotiations over $335 million in an escrow account for the victims of al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya Tanzania in 1998 were expected to conclude in the coming days. 
 
While Trump didn't explicitly mention US efforts to get Sudan to become the latest Arab country to forge ties with Israel, the U.S. government source indicated this deal could set in motion a similar establishment of diplomatic relations, as has recently occurred with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. 
 
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok previously told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that his government did not have a mandate to make a decision about Israel and insisted that any announcement about Khartoum's de-listing not be explicitly linked to normalization with Israel. 
 
While differences remain between Sudan's political and military leaders in how far and how fast to go in warming relations with Israel, Hamdok thanked President Trump on Twitter for Sudan's removal from the list, saying it has cost his country "too much."
 
 
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