With weeks to go before the United States presidential elections, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is racing to make a breakthrough with Sudan which he hopes could also benefit Israel.
Sudan’s new civilian-led government is urgently seeking to be removed from the US blacklist of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’, and is seen by Washington as open to becoming the latest Arab state to recognise Israel .
‘The United States has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that compensation is finally provided to victims of the 1998 al-Qaeda-backed terrorist attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,’ Pompeo wrote in a letter confirmed by congressional sources to senators.
Sudan is one of four nations listed as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ by the US, severely impeding investment as businesses worry of legal risks in dealing with the country.
The designation dates back to 1993 when the then strongman Omar al-Bashir welcomed armed fighters, including Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, who carried out the embassy attacks that claimed more than 200 lives.
Washington had been gradually reconciling with al-Bashir who had agreed to independence for the mostly Christian South Sudan.
But Sudan was transformed last year when al-Bashir was deposed following a wave of youth-led protests. British-educated economist Abdalla Hamdok has become the new prime minister with a reformist mandate in a transitional arrangement with the military.
Sudan’s removal from the list has been held up by a dispute over a package of some $335m that Khartoum would pay as compensation to victims’ families and survivors of the embassy attacks.
In his letter, Pompeo said it was ‘very likely’ that an agreement on claims and on delisting Sudan from the terror blacklist would be completed by the end of October – days before the November 3 election.
But the US Congress also needs to pass legislation to provide Sudan immunity from further claims.
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