Khartoum, August 26: Newly-elected Sudanese Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, has on Monday said he held talks with the United States officials about withdrawing Khartoum from America’s list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, the development comes a few days after Hamdok took charge for the civilian-military transitional government. Last week, his formal appointment was followed a mass rally movement that forcibly ousted ex-President Omar al-Bashir this April.
A transitional panel, consisting of five members of the TMC (Transitional Military Council) and six civilians, is ready to govern the nation for a three-year transition period until the next elections.
On Sunday, Hamdok told the Associated Press news agency as the nation starts its new chapter, listing out of US’ sponsor of terror nation list is the “key to anything that we can do in this country”, adding a “democratic Sudan is not a threat to anybody in the world”.
Eliminating Sudan from the US list is expected to open the door to foreign investment and permit the nation to receive a much-waited and need International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank bailout package, the Prime Minister said.
In 1993, Washington named Khartoum a state sponsor of “terror” and that the label stuck through the Bashir regime.
in January 2017, Washington kicked-off a formal process to eliminate Sudan, lifting the trade and economic barriers in October. But however, it was put on hold as mass protests struck the nation in December 2018.
“We appreciate and understand that there is a process, both I think in government and Congress,” Hamdok said, adding he hopes the process to happen soon as “it has very serious implications on our situation”.
“For 30 years, we were isolated. We were treated as a pariah state. We want to tell the world we are moving away from sanctions, issues of punishment and all that, to a Sudan that is coming back to the fold of normal nations,” he added.