Sudan: ‘Removal from terrorism list nothing to do with normalisation’

Sudan’s Acting Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has said that the country’s removal from the US list of “countries supporting terrorism” is because it paid compensation to the families of US citizens who were killed in Africa in 1998, and not any promise to normalise relations with Israel.

Heba Mohammed Ali made her comment at a press conference discussing Sudan’s relations with the United States. She revealed that the government in Khartoum was made to pay about $700 million to Washington. Nevertheless, she expressed her appreciation of the US promise to remove Sudan from the terror list.

The minister added that Khartoum expects financial and technical revenues following the decision to lift US sanctions. She also explained that the Sudanese government is hoping to see legislation passed in the US Congress to protect Sudan from future sanctions. The US and other countries, she said, are to propose economic programmes that include Sudan’s foreign debts.

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