“Political blackmail and forced normalization”. Is Sudan close to getting off the terrorist lists? (report)

It has been 27 years since America included Sudan in the lists of countries sponsors of terrorism in 1993, as a result of the policies of the Bashir regime, which caused losses to Sudan estimated at 500 billion dollars, as a result of economic isolation and the cessation of the flow of international loans and facilities, since then the Sudanese suffered many crises; Which pushed them to overthrow the regime on April 11, 2019, hoping to get rid of the stagnation of 30 continuous years, but after a year and a half after the revolution, the Sudanese people collided with other obstacles that prevent them from overcoming. its crises, following the collapse of infrastructure and the collapse of the economy, and the continuation of the country on the US terrorism lists. .

Since the transitional government, headed by Abdullah Hamdok, took office in mid-September 2019, it has set its sights on removing Sudan from the US lists of countries sponsoring terrorism, in order to provide economic relief to the country. And he participated in three rounds of talks with US Secretary of State Pompeo that took place in Washington, Khartoum, and then Dubai, but Sudan has yet to reap the fruits of the talks, despite the difficult situation. of the floods that hit the country.

The third round ended on Wednesday and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, returned to Khartoum after a three-day tour of the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, without announcing any final results. , but spoke of “serious” discussions.

Al-Masry Al-Youm interviewed several economic and political analysts within Sudan about the results of the talks, and if the countdown to ending the Sudanese crisis has started, how Khartoum finds a way to receive international aid and relief for victims of the floods that engulfed the homes of half a million families and pushed the country into total economic collapse. Finally, is the economy making a breakthrough in removing Sudan from terrorism lists, or does it have more hurdles?

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Sudanese economic analyst Mohamed Al-Nayer believes Sudan is in dire need of removing it from the US lists of countries that sponsor terrorism. Especially after the losses caused by the floods, the ingestion of 100,000 homes and the displacement of half a million families, losses estimated at about two billion dollars, adding: “Removing Sudan from the terrorism lists will result in a political and economic advance, as it will allow Sudanese banks to benefit from the lifting of the economic embargo. Partially approved by Obama in January 2017, and then completed by Trump, in October 2019, so that Sudan is not completely banned.

Adding: “Sudan continues to face complications in bank transfers, exports and imports on the one hand, and exemption of external debts estimated at $ 63 billion under the HIPC Agreement to exempt developing countries from their debts on the other hand, and there are also obstacles to Sudan receiving concessional loans, or even receiving any relief aid, due to the presence of its name on the US lists of countries sponsoring terrorism »

Sudan’s external debts are estimated at 63 billion dollars, and its assets range between 12 and 15 billion dollars, which began to accumulate since 1958, according to the World Bank report for the statistics of external debts of countries issued in 2018, and the losses suffered by Sudan are estimated as a result of the United States sanctions, according to statements. For the former Sudanese president, Omar Al-Bashir, in October 2017, about 500 million dollars. Losses from the floods and torrents that swept through Sudan in early September range from $ 2 to $ 3 billion, according to international estimates.

Political blackmail

Al-Nair adds that Sudan is being subjected to political blackmail by the US administration led by Trump, even though the Sudanese transitional government has repeatedly shown that Sudan has nothing to do with terrorism, but rather cooperated with the US administration in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration records. Adding: “What is being circulated behind the scenes is that the Trump administration imposes tough conditions on Sudan economically and politically, despite Sudan’s acceptance of all US requirements.”

And prices provided by Sudan

The first round of talks on removing Sudan from Sudan’s lists was in February 2020, when he met with Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, US Secretary of State Pompeo, and expressed acceptance Sudan from the US requirements to remove them from the lists of countries sponsoring terrorism. Hamdok reviewed many of the measures taken by Khartoum to this end, the most important of which was the enactment of the law to dismantle the regime of June 30, 1989, which was the main reason for placing Sudan in the situation of terrorism. , and the suspension by the Sudanese Cabinet of the activities of more than 25 Brotherhood organizations carrying out suspicious activities, which were the cause. By bringing al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden to Sudan in the early 1990s.

Sudan agreed to pay compensation to the families of 17 American sailors who were killed by Al Qaeda against their ship, the destroyer USS Cole, in a Yemen port in 2000, and the United States accused the Bashir regime of complicity in their assassination, as part of a basic condition imposed by the United States, but did not consider steps. The US administration is sufficient, according to Reuters at the time.

Hamdok and Pompeo met in a second round last August, and American Foreign Policy magazine quoted influential members of the Senate as saying that the Trump administration stipulated that Khartoum pay $ 335 million in compensation to the victims of the bombings. the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 and the battleship. US Cole »off the coast of Yemen in 2000, accuses the International Court of Justice of indicting Al-Bashir for his involvement in them.

The Sudanese government promised, under an agreement signed by Hamdok in February, to provide the amount, but Hamdok demanded a law from the US administration to strengthen his country from what it called US blackmail to Sudan, according to an official statement issued by the cabinet. Sudanese, after the end of the second round of talks.

Are there obstacles?

Sudanese political analyst Hussein Al-Dow believes that the third round of negotiations, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, which ended on Wednesday, is of a different character, and that the US side is taking advantage of the difficult economic situation in Sudan after the floods, and imposes more conditions to restart negotiations. At the height; To improve Trump’s chances in the upcoming elections using the normalization file with Israel, adding that the Trump administration links the lifting of Sudan’s name from the list of states sponsoring terrorism with its normalization of relations with the occupying power, to Despite his knowledge that the file may cause an internal division between the Council of Sovereignty as an executive body, on the one hand. And among the political incubator of the government represented by the transitional government, headed by Hamdok, on the other hand, by the disagreement of the two parties on the decision on the normalization file, at a time when the Sudanese ruling institutions are still in the transition phase, without popular authorization or approval to make fateful decisions that may affect the present. Or the future of the country.

The dispute between the transitional government headed by Abdullah Hamdok and the ruling sovereign council began since the meeting of its president, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda last February, without the knowledge of the government, since the Forces of Freedom and Change, the political incubator of the transitional government, announced at the time of the meeting. It is an inadmissible matter and casts a negative shadow on the country’s political situation, highlighting its adherence to the constitutional document, which stipulates that foreign relations are the inherent competence of the executive branch, and far exceeds the intervention of the sovereign council in this matter.

The positions and official statements also varied within the corridors of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following statements by its spokesman, Haidar Badawi, that Sudan hopes to establish a relationship with Israel, for which Minister Omar Qamar al-Din , in denial, and then transferred Badawi to the Planning Department, justifying that “the man is authorized to speak and that the Foreign Ministry has no discussion on the matter.” This prompted a response from Ambassador Badawi in a private message to a group of journalists, justifying his speech to walk the path of transparency, asking the government to reveal “ what is happening in secret ” and his feeling that “ “ The Chancellery is absent and dark. ” ».

Countdown

Sudanese political expert Muhammad Ali Fazari believes that the countdown to leaving Sudan, the American blacklists, has become a matter of time. We discern this from the statements of the Sovereignty Council, headed by al-Burhan, after his return on Wednesday, from the third round of talks with the US side, noting that the normalization file will be submitted for consultation between the Council of Ministers, the Council of Sovereignty and the Forces of Freedom and Change again.

He added: “The approval by the World Bank of the reform plan proposed by Sudan and previously rejected indicates that removing Sudan from the terrorism lists has become a matter of time, and that even if differences arise in the normalization docket It will not go beyond the exchange of political statements between the two sides of the authority. “

Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Director General of the International Monetary Fund, confirmed late Wednesday night, that is, after the end of the third session of the negotiations between Sudan and the United States, that “the Executive Board of the Fund approved a plan to monitor a 12-month economic program prepared by Sudan as it sought to demonstrate its capacity to implement reforms. And move toward debt forgiveness at the end of the day. “