Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Trump Officially Removes Sudan from Terrorism List


Fri 23 Oct 2020 | 03:42 PM
Yara Sameh

Sudanese Sovereign Council announced on Friday that US President Donald Trump  signed the resolution to remove Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

On Monday, Trump said Sudan will be removed from the list if it follows through on its pledge to pay $335 million to American terror victims and their families.

Sudan’s transitional government, in charge since the toppling of Omar al-Bashir last year, has been pushing to get off the U.S. list, which hinders its ability to access foreign loans to tackle an economic crisis.

In August, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue of Sudan establishing ties with Israel during a visit. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok told him he had no mandate to do so.

The same month, the UAE, a key partner of the U.S., and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in deals brokered by Washington, the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to break a longstanding taboo.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he expects other Arab countries to follow suit.

Ties with Israel are a sensitive issue in Sudan, which was among the hardline Muslim foes of Israel under Bashir.