Pompeo: US begins lifting Sudan from state sponsors of terror list

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US had begun the process of removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, although he could not yet specify an exact timing for completing the move.

Speaking in a press briefing at the State Department, Pompeo said Sudan’s removal from the list was the correct way to proceed.

“There’s been a lot of work done in this over the course of the first three years of the administration,” he noted. “We believe there’s a firm legal basis for doing that, and we think that there will be enormous bipartisan consensus that that’s the right thing to do.”

Asked whether the decision was tied to a possible normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel, Pompeo 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 certainly includes Sudan.

“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,” Pompeo added. “We hope that they’ll do that quickly. We hope every country will do that quickly.”

On Tuesday, Sudan’s central bank governor said the East African state had transferred the compensation it had agreed to pay US victims of terrorist attacks and their families, paving the way for its reintegration into the global economy after nearly three decades of isolation.

The payment of $ 335 million was part of a deal with the US for Sudan’s removal from the list, and it had been a hurdle for Khartoum as it sought debt relief and external borrowing.

Sudan has transferred the required amount, bank governor Mohamed al- Fatih Zainelabidine told a news conference. Thanks to US sanctions dating back to the 1990s, Sudan has been largely cut off from international banking. But Zainelabidine said that following the move, local banks could begin restoring correspondence relations next week.

“The Sudanese economy will not feel a fundamental change tomorrow morning,” Sudanese acting Finance Minister Hiba Mohamed Ali warned at the conference. “But there will be some rapid improvements, including moral and psychological.”

Also Wednesday, flight tracking websites showed a private get flying from Ben- Gurion Airport to Khartoum, in a move some saw as a sign of burgeoning relations between Israel and Sudan.

This was only the second time such a flight took place; the previous time was a medical aid from Israel to Sudan.