The U.S. has restored Sudan’s sovereign immunity after Khartoum was removed from the blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.
The U.S. Congress passed legislation to that effect on Monday, which came as talks were underway to normalize relations between Sudan and the Israeli regime.
Sudan’s previous status as a state sponsor of terrorism, which had been in place for nearly three decades, had worsened its economy and limited its receipt of aid. The restoration of Sudan’s sovereign immunity – protection from suit in U.S. courts – has now removed another layer of financial risk for that country.
The U.S. removed Sudan from its blacklist of terrorism sponsors a week ago, less than two months after that country pledged to normalize relations with the Israeli regime.
The move opens the way to aid, debt relief and investment for a country undergoing a difficult political transition and suffering from a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic.Under an agreement, Sudan agreed to pay $335 million to compensate survivors and victim families of the two 1998 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as for an attack by that terrorist organization on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.
Those attacks were carried out after Omar al-Bashir gave then-al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden sanctuary in Sudan.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed to eliminate any issues that could cast doubt on Khartoum’s historic promise to normalize relations with Israel.
According to the law, Washington will authorize $111 million to pay off part of Sudan’s bilateral debt and $120 million to pay off its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and will provide an additional $700 million in assistance to the country through September 2022.
by Basit Abbasi