US removes Sudan from list of countries that support terrorism

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Khartoum last August HANDOUT / AFP

The United States on Monday removed Sudan from the list of countries sponsors of terrorism.

In exchange, the African country has made the payment of 275 million euros in compensation to families who are victims of attacks and has agreed to normalize its relations with Israel, two measures that the United States demanded for the removal of the black list to take effect.

The Sudanese authorities hope to relaunch its battered economy after the Trump Administration's decision, as access to international credits and foreign investment is unlocked.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, signed on Monday the decree by which Sudan officially disappears from the list of countries that support terrorism, in which it appeared since 1993 and in which Iran, North Korea and Syria remain, according to has informed the US Embassy in this country.

Already on October 26, President Donald Trump had signed the executive order, but 45 days had to elapse, the notification period to the US Congress, for it to become effective.

During the 1990s, the Sudanese government headed by Omar al Bashir gave shelter to Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, as well as other terrorists from this group, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

However, the Sudanese revolution that forced the downfall of Al Bashir in 2019 and the rise to power of a transitional council made up of military and civilians has radically changed things.

The new Sudanese Executive has been breaking with its recent past with measures such as the abolition of the apostasy law, the death penalty or the criminalization of female genital mutilation.

Khartoum also agreed to compensate victims of the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and on the USS Cole in a Yemen port in 2000, allegedly staged attacks in Sudan.

Although the negotiations continue, the payment of 275 million euros has already been formalized in a joint guarantee account and this was the first of the conditions established to remove Sudan from the black list.

The second demand was the normalization of relations between the new authorities and Israel.

Abrahamic agreements

On September 15, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab countries to recognize Israel in 26 years.

The signing of the so-called Abraham Accords was sponsored by the United States, which had started a frantic race to add new support for its ally in the Arab world.

Sudan was the third nation to appear on the American radar.

The negotiations lasted for months and were surrounded by some controversy, as leaders of the coalition of parties that supports the Sudanese government showed their reluctance.

However, pressure from the Trump Administration succeeded in overcoming the timid internal resistance.

Sudan is immersed in a deep economic crisis that threatens even the transition process and to access international credit and investment it needed to get off the US black list.

The agreement for the normalization of relations, signed by the Sudanese authorities, must be ratified by the Congress that leaves the elections in this country in 2022.