Sudan president looks forward to normal U.S. ties

KHARTOUM, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Sudan’s president on Wednesday applauded the United States, which lists Khartoum as a state sponsor of terrorism, for its efforts to end Sudan’s civil war and said he looked forward to normal ties with Washington.

“We commend the position of the United States in the Sudanese peace talks and its commitment to them,” President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in a speech broadcast on state television.

“While we commend the American position and look forward to complete bilateral ties, we call on the United States…to review its positions towards issues of global peace in a way that achieves justice in our African, Islamic and Arab world,” he said.

Washington appointed a special envoy to Sudan in 2001 who helped bring Khartoum and southern rebels, who have been fighting a 20-year-long civil war, to an outline peace deal last year.

Washington’s ties with Sudan have been frosty since a 1989 military coup brought Bashir to power. They hit a nadir in 1998 when the United States attacked a pharmaceuticals plant in Sudan it said was making ingredients for chemical weapons.

The Sudanese government and the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement resumed peace talks in Kenya on Tuesday aiming to end the war which has killed about two million people.

The parties reached a key deal on security arrangements last month.