US threatens to scrap plans for new embassy in Sudan

January 13, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The US administration said it may call a halt to the construction of a new embassy building in Sudan unless Khartoum releases equipments blocked by custom authorities.

The daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published in London reported that Sudanese officials said that they will not release the equipments unless the US administration to unfreeze its assets in the US.

Sabir Mohammed Hassan, governor of Sudan Central Bank, asked the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas Greenfield, specifically to return money confiscated following a ruling by U.S. court that ordered Khartoum to pay some $8 million to the families of U.S. sailors killed in the bombing of an American naval destroyer seven years ago in Yemen.

The newspaper said that Greenfield turned down Sudan’s request and said that Washington will abandon the new embassy project which incurred $60 million in costs to date.

Hassan on his end vowed not to give the US embassy equipments any special consideration. He told the US official that the Sudanese embassy in Washington gets audited on a regular basis which costs Khartoum over $3,000 monthly.

The US has been working on constructing a new embassy south of Khartoum for over 2 years. Last year a standoff occurred between Washington and Khartoum over 400 containers that were blocked by Sudan’s treasury because of non-payment of customs fees.

However Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir issued a decree granting an exception to the containers from custom fees. It was reported at the non-payment of customs to Khartoum was due to the US sanctions imposed prohibiting financial dealings with the Sudanese government.

Last May Bush ordered stiffened sanctions on Sudan that will bar 31 companies controlled by the government from doing business in the U.S. financial system as well as sanctions on four Sudanese individuals, including two senior Sudanese officials and a rebel leader suspected of involvement in the Darfur violence.

It is not clear how the deadlock over the embassy equipments would be resolved. Last March the London based al-Hayat newspaper said that the new embassy will include a regional center for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with spy equipment directed to East Africa in the context of the increased cooperation between the CIA and the Sudanese intelligence services.

A US official told Sudan Tribune last April that Washington told Khartoum that it is in their interest to facilitate the construction of the new embassy or “it will take another 10 years” and will continue the inconvenience for the residents of the area surrounding the current location of the US embassy in Khartoum.

(ST)