The United States formally removed Sudan on Monday from its list of countries supporting terrorism, where it had appeared since 1993, the American embassy in Khartoum announced on Facebook.
“With the 45-day notification period to Congress having expired, the Secretary of State signed a notification revoking Sudan’s designation as a Terrorist Supporting State. The measure is effective as of December 14, ”according to the same source.
This measure, long awaited by Khartoum, since the fall in April 2019 of the autocrat Omar al-Bashir, should offer a breath of fresh air to the economy of this country in full doldrums. Blacklisting prevented foreign countries from trading and investing in Sudan on pain of sanctions.
US President Donald Trump announced on October 19 the removal of Khartoum from this blacklist. And on October 23, the Sudanese authorities, while denying any “blackmail”, agreed, under American pressure, to normalize their relations with Israel. And it was only after this Sudanese announcement that Donald Trump actually notified the US Congress, on October 26, of Sudan’s removal from the blacklist.
The families of the sailors of the USS Cole compensated
Earlier this year, Sudan had also fulfilled another of the essential conditions for this withdrawal by Washington from the list of states supporting terrorism: Khartoum had agreed to pay compensation to the families of the 17 American sailors who were killed during the war. a suicide attack off Yemen in October 2000.
On October 12, 2000, a dinghy operated by two suicide bombers exploded against the destroyer USS Cole, which was refueling in Aden harbor, ripping open the side of the vessel. The attack was claimed by the leader of the jihadist group Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. American justice had held Sudan responsible for the attack, saying that its perpetrators had been trained in this country.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
