Special Envoy Booth: US-Sudanese relations will improve

According to the US Special Envoy to Sudan, Donald Booth, Washington will cooperate with the Sudanese government to successfully complete the three-year transitional period, draft a permanent Constitution, and hold general elections.

Booth, who is currently visiting Khartoum, met with the chairman of the Sovereign Council, Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, at the Republican Palace on Thursday. He was accompanied by the US chargé d'affaires and military attaché. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Asmaa Abdallah attended the meeting as well.

After the meeting, the US Special Envoy said in a press statement that they discussed common issues as well as the Sudanese peace process. He further reported ongoing, so far successful talks between Khartoum and Washington about the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok plans to travel again to Washington next month, to continue the discussion about the normalisation of relations between the two countries and the removal of Sudan from the list of US State Sponsors of Terrorism.

The Sudanese Minister of Finance told the participants of the Sudan International Partners Forum in Khartoum earlier this month that the dire economic situation requires the lifting of the US sanctions on the country.

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has requested the World Bank for $2 billion to stabilise and rebuild the economy, but as long as Sudan is listed as a sponsor of terrorism, it can get no support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Sudan was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 under former US President Bill Clinton, cutting it off from financial markets and strangling its economy. In the end of 2017, Washington lifted a 20-year trade embargo against Sudan. Khartoum was in the process of discussions on removing it from the US list when the military stepped in on April 11 to depose veteran autocrat Omar Al Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years.

In August, a senior US State Department official said Washington wanted to test the commitment of the new Sudanese government. While PM Abdallah Hamdok would be the main point of contact, US diplomats would also have to interact with Gen Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemeti', the deputy chief of the Military Council who heads the widely feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, he stated.

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