US to remove Sudan from its blacklist

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington will remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after the country's new government, led by Abdalla Hamdok, paid off US victims.

"The new government of Sudan, which is making great progress, agreed to pay $335 MILLION to the victims and families of US terrorism. Once deposited, I will remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Finally, JUSTICE for the American people and a BIG step for Sudan," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Removal from the list has been a top priority for Sudan's transitional government, which has been in power since August last year following the military removal of President Omar al-Bashir following months of protests against his government. A US executive source had told the Reuters news agency that negotiations concerning Sudan's deposit of a $335 million agreement for the victims of al-Qaeda's attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 were expected to be concluded within the next two days.

The agreement could also set in motion Sudan's moves towards establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, a US official told Reuters, following similar moves negotiated by the US in recent weeks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Details are still being worked out, the source said.

At the end of September an American delegation met in the UAE with a Sudanese delegation led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of the Sovereignty Council. 

In August the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, paid the first visit to the African country by a high-ranking US official. The trip, which lasted scarcely a few hours, did not have the result that both sides intended, as Washington's aim was to take a new ally in the Middle East for Israel, but Khartoum showed its refusal to normalise relations with the Jewish country.

"The transitional government is not authorised (...) to decide on normalisation with Israel, and this matter will be decided once the institutions of the transitional power are completed", said the Sudanese government's spokesman, Faisal Saleh, at the time.

The press conference scheduled after Pompeo's trip, together with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, was suspended after it became known that the meeting between the two delegations had not achieved its objectives: for Khartoum to establish relations with Israel and for Washington to remove Sudan from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. The African country has been on this list since the 1990s when Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, was a guest of former president Omar al-Bashir's government.

But now, following the payment of Sudanese compensation to US victims, the withdrawal from the blacklist has become effective.

Since Mr al-Bashir was overthrown, relations with Washington have improved considerably, and relations with Israel, always a sensitive issue with the Arab country, have also been finding normalisation. In February Mr al-Burhan met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Uganda. This meeting was condemned by most Sudanese in demonstrations and raised some doubts about the normalisation of ties, although Israeli planes began to fly over Sudan.