US and Sudan embrace era of improved ties
For many Americans, Sudan is at worst known for providing a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and the genocide in Darfur, and at best for being the world’s largest producer of gum arabic.
For the US government, however, and since Barack Obama’s quiet engagement with Khartoum in 2015, the country represents an opportunity for military, intelligence, and economic co-operation.
Last month, the Trump administration lifted a 20-yearold sanctions regime on Sudan, continuing in the footsteps of the Obama White House, which loosened those sanctions a week before its term ended in January.
The improved US-Sudan relations could eventually lead to the removal of Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, experts said.
The detente is taking place in parallel with Khartoum’s regional realignment away from Iran and closer to the Arab world.
This month, the US thaw in relations with Sudan hit a new peak. Weeks after lifting the sanctions, Khartoum announced on November 17 that it was severing all trade and military ties with North Korea, a key demand by Washington that was negotiated during a visit to Sudan that same week by US deputy secretary of state John Sullivan.
In a speech from Khartoum, Mr Sullivan presented a path for Sudan to become a “full partner” by improving its human rights record, and seeking “peace within its borders and with its neighbours”.
On Sudan’s status as sponsor of terrorism, a tag it gained in 1993, Mr Sullivan said: “We are prepared to continue discussions with the government of Sudan on this issue, and to engage with them on all that would be required to have them removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
In March, the US and Sudan resumed military relations, and the US Central Intelligence Agency decided to open an office there a month later. Then in September, an amended version of Mr Trump’s travel ban removed Sudan from the list of countries facing immigration restrictions to the US.
Kelsey Lilley, an associate director of the Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said the new US-Sudan thaw is transactional in nature and is based on a quiet process that Mr Obama started with Khartoum a year before leaving office.
“It was very smart and purposeful by the Trump administration to take the baton [from the Obama team], to continue and own the engagement process with Sudan,” Ms Lilley said.
Steve McDonald, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson centre, said the US should temper its expectations of such openness from Sudan president Omar Bashir, who is accused by the ICC of genocide and war crimes in the Darfur conflict.
“Bashir is still under International Criminal Court indictment and the government is continuing to close democratic space, human rights violations still persist in the Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and Darfur,” Mr McDonald said.
Still, Ms Lilley stressed that the US-Sudan thaw was not about resolving every issue but rather “a recognition that engagement achieves results, whereas decades of sanctions and economic and cultural isolation didn’t achieve much”.
Besides the economic opportunities that Sudan presents the United States across North and Central Africa and particularly in rivalling China in the continent, the country’s geopolitical shifts away from Iran and North Korea were also welcomed by Washington.
In 2014, Sudan expelled Iranian diplomats before cutting all its relations with Tehranlast year. In parallel, Khartoum improved its ties with Saudi Arabia and GCC countries, sending soldiers to Yemen in 2015.
Mr Bashir has visited Saudi Arabia four times this year and met either King Salman or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or both.
“The attempt by the Trump administration to align powers in the Middle East and North Africa against Iran plays into this [engagement], with Sudan agreeing to break ties with Iran and come closer to Saudi Arabia,” Mr McDonald said.
While Mr McDonald cautioned that Mr Bashir “cannot be trusted” and “US may be bound for a very rocky road ahead”, Ms Lilley applauded a continuation of a calculated transactional engagement.
Issues of debt relief, removal from state sponsor of terror could be next on the table in return for more constructive counterterrorism and regional peaceful gestures from Sudan.