Sudan, United States tentatively improving ties, cooperating against terrorism

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov 26, 2003 (AP) — Days after the U.S. Embassy shut down due to terror threats, the State Department urged Americans to stay away from this northeastern African country because of further warnings of danger.

For a week or so, it looked like Sudan — on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993 — could be targeted for the kind of attack that recently hit Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

But the embassy reopened after less than a week, and despite the warnings and threats, Sudan and the United States seem to agree the country is making headway in the war against terrorism.

Najeib El-Kheir, Sudan’s state minister for foreign affairs, said his country’s cooperation with Washington should be praised given its history — the government sheltered al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s — and its location in a “region of turmoil.”

“I believe that Sudan has taken a lot of measures to make its soil free from terrorism,” El-Kheir told The Associated Press. “Sudan has changed plans and programs and strategies.”

Sudan, which once sought to be an Islamic fundamentalist state, has been making efforts at moderation and fostering closer ties with the West.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Sudan has been credited with cooperating in the war against terror, and President Omar el-Bashir’s government is eager to resume full diplomatic and business relations with the United States, which reopened its embassy in Khartoum last year.

Gerard M. Gallucci, the charge d’affaires at the embassy since August — a full U.S. ambassador has yet to be appointed — said Sudan’s cooperation against terrorism has increased considerably in recent years, though he would not give specific examples.

He praised Sudan for its help and support following the terror threats in mid-November. He called the threats “specific and credible”; they came at nearly the same time as warnings that led to closing U.S. diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia — hours before suicide bombers hit a housing compound in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

“The threat we face is global. It’s a threat which there’s no reason to assume originates in Sudan,” Gallucci said. “But that there may be still some folks left who might provide the water for other fish to swim, I think it’s prudent that we assume that’s possible.”

But El-Kheir said Washington knows Sudan has cut ties with Islamic extremists and added there is a continuous exchange of information with the United States. The two sides also are working together to end the Sudanese government’s decades-long civil war with southern rebels.

Washington imposed sanctions on Sudan after el-Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup. In 1996, the U.S. embassy in Khartoum was shut amid worsening relations; that same year, Sudan ordered bin Laden out of the country after offers to hand him over to Saudi Arabia or the United States were either rejected or ignored.

In 1998, the United States hit a Sudanese factory with missiles in response to the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Since that low point, things are definitely looking up.

“I think that we really want to move quickly to improve our relationship with the government of Sudan,” Gallucci said. “We’re getting ready to play a much more active role in Sudan, in terms of not just getting to a peace agreement, but … working to help move Sudan forward as a country.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell said last month that Washington would consider normalizing relations with Khartoum if a peace deal was concluded.

Talks are to resume in early December on ending the war that began in 1983 when animist and Christian rebels took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim government. More than 2 million people have been killed in the war, mainly through war-induced drought.

Alfred Taban, an analyst and chairman of the board at the English-language Khartoum Monitor, said the Sudanese government is being especially conciliatory to the United States because it needs help in reaching peace.

“They don’t want to annoy the Americans at this particular time because it would be disastrous. America is the one pushing the peace process. If America pulls out, it would be a disaster, the war would resume,” he said.

In return for America’s help, he said, Sudan is a close partner against terrorism.

But the minister, El-Kheir, said the government did not feel any pressure from the United States and was glad to have a partner in the peace process and the chance to improve relations — and get U.S. sanctions lifted.

“We are full of optimism that our performance … can bode well for Sudan to enjoy the lifting of sanctions,” he said.

Gallucci said the United States would likely remove Sudan from its terror list soon after a peace agreement is signed, but lifting sanctions would be more difficult.

U.N. sanctions, imposed in 1995 for Sudan’s alleged role in a Muslim extremist plot to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, were lifted in September 2001.