$335 million was the price for the US lifting Sudan from the state sponsors of terror list, which was a relief as Khartoum was actively seeking debt relief and external borrowing.
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, reported that as the US has decided to remove Sudan from the list, he could still not specify when it will complete.
In a press briefing at the State Department, the Secretary of State said that removing Sudan from the list was the next best step.
Pompeo mentioned that a lot of work has been done within three years of the Trump administration, and there is a legal basis for removing Sudan from the state sponsors of terror list and that there’ll surely be an enormous bipartisan consensus that the decision was right.
Mike Pompeo was asked though if the decision was linked to a possible normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel, to who which he replied, “We also are continuing to work to get every nation to recognize Israel, the rightful Jewish Homeland and to acknowledge their basic, fundamental right to exist as a country, and that includes Sudan.”
Pompeo reiterated further, “We are working diligently with them to make a case for why that’s in the Sudanese government’s best interest to make that sovereign decision. We hope that they’ll do that,”
“We hope that they’ll do that quickly. We hope every country will do that quickly.”
Sudan’s central bank governor on Tuesday mentioned that the East African state had given the compensation that was agreed upon to send for payment to the US victims of terrorist attacks and their respective families. It was a way for Sudan’s reintegration into the international economy, finally, after thirty years of isolation.
Sudan has paid that amount, as bank governor, Mohamed al-Fatih Zainelabidine reported in a news conference. Sudan has never had any communication or connection with international banking, and that was solely because of the implemented US sanctions way back in 1990. But because of the US’s decision, banks in Sudan are slowly restoring their communications next week,
Hiba Mohamed Ali, Acting Finance Minister did mention at the conference that the Sudanese economy will not see a change anytime soon, but it will come. “But there will be some rapid improvements, including moral and psychological.”
