Sudanese leader’s US visit could establish path to dropping country from terrorism list

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok is making a rare visit to Washington this week to begin a historic thaw in relations with the US.

Mr Hamdok arrived in Washington on Sunday, becoming the first Sudanese leader to visit the US capital since 1985.

The last was president Gaafar Nimeiri, who attended a White House meeting with US President Ronald Reagan.

Since then, US-Sudan relations have deteriorated as instability and military coups undermined the African nation. The rise of Omar Al Bashir to power in 1989 poisoned relationships with successive American administrations until his removal last April.

In 1993, the US added Sudan to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, then imposed a trade embargo and sanctions to punish Khartoum for ties to extremist groups and Iran and its role in the genocide in Darfur.

On this visit, Mr Hamdok will try to turn that page. He is meeting senior US officials at the State, Treasury, Defence, Justice, Education and Commerce

Departments as well as ranking members of Congress and heads of foreign relations committees.

Accompanying him are Sudan’s ministers of foreign affairs, sports, justice, finance, defence and religious affairs.

The White House has not confirmed if Mr Hamdok will be meeting US President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, but he is expected to meet National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and other NSC officials. Mr Hamdok will also hold meetings at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“The visit is extremely significant,” Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council’s Africa Centre, told

The National. “It truly signals a new era in the US-Sudan relationship.”

Intelligence sharing, the Nile Dam dispute and countering China’s growing influence on the African continent are expected to be discussed, but one issue will take priority – removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

A successful visit, Mr Hudson argued, would mean Mr Hamdok “can leave Washington having normalised the bilateral ties, established relationships of trust with US officials, and created a set of shared expectations and timelines for how the bilateral relationship can be further improved”.

Bilateral relations progressed in 2015 but are not fully normalised. Barack Obama’s quiet engagement with Khartoum produced a loosening of some sanctions.

In 2017, the Trump administration lifted a 20-year-old trade embargo on Sudan, and the CIA opened an office in the country. After Mr Al Bashir’s removal, the US prioritised an orderly civilian transition as critical to moving the relationship forward. But last October, Mr Trump signed a declaration that considers Sudan a threat.

“Despite recent positive developments, the crisis constituted by the actions and policies of the Government of Sudan that led to the declaration of a national emergency … has not been resolved,” Mr Trump said in a letter to Congress.

Mr Hudson did not expect Sudan to be removed from the terrorism list during this visit but noted that “it should pave the way for that outcome”.

Statutory requirements, and “greater assurances that the risk of Sudan backsliding, either under Hamdok or after the transitional period, is minimised” are needed to drop such designation, he said.

Even if it happens, Mr Hudson said a delisting won’t solve all of Sudan’s problems. It will, however, allow the country more ready access to private capital markets to promote economic recovery and easier access to concessional lending from international financial institutions, he said. It would signal “once and for all the end of Sudan’s pariah status”.

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said there was an opportunity in Mr Hamdok’s visit “to turn a new leaf and create a path for removal from the terror list”.

But Mr Hamdok’s government must completely rid itself from the baggage of the Al Bashir regime, Mr Schanzer, a former Treasury official told The National.

This entails ending any ties with terrorist groups designated such by the US, such as Al Qaeda, Hamas and ISIS