Sudan on Tuesday hailed US plans to remove it from its state sponsors of terrorism blacklist, saying that the move would facilitate debt relief and pave the way to economic recovery.
Sudan is one of four nations branded by the US as a state sponsor of terrorism — along with Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The designation has severely impeded economic development in the nation, with few major foreign investors willing to run afoul of US laws.
“This decision qualifies Sudan for debt relief,” Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a speech broadcast by state television. “Today, we have debts of more than US$60 billion. This decision paves the way for exemption.”
In a landmark announcement, US President Donald Trump on Monday declared his readiness to remove Sudan from the US blacklist.
“At long last, JUSTICE for the American people and BIG step for Sudan,” Trump wrote on Twitter, vowing to delist Sudan as soon as the compensation is “deposited.”
Sudan’s terror designation dates to 1993 during the rule of then-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who hosted wanted militants including former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.
Al-Bashir was ousted in April last year after mass protests against his rule, and the country’s transitional government has made lifting the US sanctions a priority.
The government agreed to pay hundreds of millions of US dollars in compensation to US families of victims of past attacks blamed on Sudan.
Trump on Monday said that Sudan had agreed to a US$335 million compensation package for victims and relatives of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Sudanese Central Bank Governor Mohamed al-Fatih told the news conference that the compensation payments had been made.
Earlier this year, Sudan had paid compensation to families of victims of a bomb attack on the USS Cole off Yemen’s coast in October 2000.
Sudan always denied any involvement, but agreed to the settlement to fulfill US conditions for its delisting.
“This is the beginning. This is not a solution to our problems, but it is the beginning,” Sudanese Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Omar Qamareddine.
“We are not terrorist people, but we were afflicted by a regime that made us appear so,” he told a news conference.
People on the streets of Khartoum expressed the hope that the planned US move would boost the Sudanese economy.
“We are optimistic about this decision, as it gives Sudan a new horizon, an awakening and pushes us forward,” one of them, Adem Mostafa, said.
Another said that he hoped the Sudanese government would not squander the opportunity.
“The government has to begin with reforms, and face all the challenges and the matters that have been sabotaged during the past 30 years,” Hashim Abdul Fatah said.
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