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Sudan has threatened to withdraw from its normalization agreement with Israel if the US Congress does not remove the country from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism (SST) by the end of the year, according to reports.
At least five officials and others familiar with the conversations confirmed the condition to the New York Times, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
Sudan announced its decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel late last month, immediately following Washington’s decision to remove Khartoum from the SST list.
The delisting is intended to be a major boost to Sudan’s struggling economy and a critical step in its efforts to rejoin the international community after last year’s uprising toppled leader Omar al-Bashir.
Meanwhile, normalization of ties with Israel was seen as a foreign policy victory for US President Donald Trump, whose administration in August secured similar deals with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
At the end of December?
Now it’s all up to Congress, as lawmakers must approve Sudan’s delisting, which would protect the North African country from various terrorism-related lawsuits in the United States.
Sudan must also be removed from the SST list in order to do business with foreign investors. Currently, investors are reluctant to do business with Khartoum for fear of ending up potentially financing billions of dollars in compensation to victims of terrorism.
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But without those foreign investments, Sudan’s transitional government has few options in terms of lifting the country out of widespread poverty and instability. Sudanese negotiators have estimated that the country needs at least $ 2 billion in funding to avoid an imminent economic collapse.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led efforts to bring Arab states into the circle of Israel, met with Sudan’s de facto leader, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Monday.
During the meeting, Burhan made it clear that Sudan would not comply with its plans to normalize ties with Israel before Congress passes “legal peace legislation,” the NYT reported.
A person familiar with the conversation told the newspaper that Pompeo assured Burhan that the immunity plan would be approved in the next few weeks.
The delisting signing ceremony will reportedly be held with Sudanese officials at the White House in late December. But Congress has stalled on legislation, which would essentially prevent victims of past terror attacks from seeking compensation from Sudan outside of what has already been negotiated.
Lawsuits for terrorism and deadlock in the Senate
Some of America’s victims of terrorism and their families will continue to receive compensation if the deal is consolidated, as Sudan is locked into a $ 335 million settlement agreed to as a condition for its delisting.
The funds, which have been collected and withheld, will go to the victims of the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Both attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda forces with the help of Sudan, resulting in the deaths of 224 people, including 12 US citizens.
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Most of the money will go to victims who were US citizens at the time of the explosion, as negotiated by the State Department. But other victims, nearly all black, including those who have since become US citizens, will receive much less compensation, the NYT reported.
Some lawmakers have opposed the breakdown of the payment, seeking more funding.
Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, has opposed the disparity in payments for victims who naturalized after the attacks.
Other lawsuits are likely to be dropped entirely, such as those related to the September 11 attacks, which allege that Sudan is guilty of having protected Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has been working to preserve his claims, hoping to hold Sudan accountable.
A person familiar with Sudan’s negotiating position called Schumer’s attempts unacceptable, the NYT reported.
Still, the Senate is expected to pass a large military spending bill in the next two weeks and the delisting could be included in such legislation, according to a Senate official who is working to break out of the deadlock, according to the newspaper. .
Deal with Israel
Sudan, which has never had relations with Israel, was hesitant to start the normalization agreement, as officials said such an agreement was outside the mandate of the transitional government.
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In September, a senior member of Sudan’s civilian government said that linking the country’s OSH exclusion to its Israel normalization agreement threatened the stability of the newly designed government in Khartoum.
“Linking Sudan’s lifting from the terrorist list to Israel’s normalization is pure blackmail,” the official told the Washington Post at the time. “The US administration is potentially undermining the transitional government.”
While Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok had said that the designation of terrorism and normalization with Israel should be seen as two separate diplomatic processes, they appear to be closely linked.
Tel Aviv and Khartoum had not enjoyed official bilateral relations prior to this year’s agreement, although Israel has had close relations with South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011.
Shortly before being removed from power, Bashir said he was advised to normalize ties with Israel, a request he rejected.
