U.S. may soon drop Sudan from terrorism list: official

January 11, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The United States announced today that it is prepared to remove Sudan from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism as early as next July if the North recognizes results of the referendum in the South, an official said today.

“Should the referendum be carried out successfully and the results are recognized by the government, President Obama would indicate his intention to begin the process of removing them,” Ambassador Princeton Lyman, the lead US negotiator to Sudan, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

“It is a process that takes some time, but by beginning the process in the wake of the referendum, the hope is if they meet all the conditions it can be done by July,” Lyman added.

It is not clear if resolutions to post-referendum issues such as Abyei, citizenship, borders, national debt, water and wealth sharing are part of the conditions for getting off the list.

Last November, U.S. senator John Kerry carried an offer to Khartoum which contained dropping its terrorism designation if Sudan ensures that the South Sudan referendum takes place on schedule and the results are respected.

Washington further said that it “decoupled” the conflict in Darfur from Khartoum’s terror designation in return for a smooth vote that is currently underway.

The referendum is widely expected to lead to mainly Christian and animist southern Sudan seceding from the predominantly Muslim north of the country.

Another key condition for removing Khartoum from the US blacklist is that it not “directly or indirectly” support terror groups, said Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson.

The U.S. State Department added Sudan to its state terror list in 1993, accusing Khartoum of harboring local and international militants including for a time al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism cannot receive US aid or buy US weapons and a raft of restrictions on financial and other dealings. The list currently includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

The U.S. special envoy Scott Gration said at a Congress hearing in 2009 that the terrorism designation for Sudan is no longer valid, and called it a “political decision”.

An official at the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) said in press statements this week that the U.S. should back off from Sudan and that they no longer believe their “false promises”.

Mandoor Al-Mahdi said that despite the U.S. promises and other Western nations to lift sanctions and de-list Sudan from state sponsors of terrorism and provide assistance they did not follow through.

“All we are asking the United States [to do] is to hold its evils from Sudan and we are sure that Sudan will go ahead without these false promises,” he said.

But the foreign ministry spokesperson Khalid Moussa appeared to strike a different tone today saying that Sudan welcomes US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks in Abu Dhabi this week in which she hailed Khartoum’s commitment to the peace agreement with the South.

“I give credit to the government in Khartoum for having agreed in 2005 to let the people of the south to vote on their own future,” Clinton told university students in Abu Dhabi.

Moussa said that the US should adopt practical steps and prompt measures instead of giving words and unfulfilled pledges to remove Sudan from the list of countries considered by Washington to be sponsoring terrorism.

The US should then lift the sanctions being imposed on Sudan as well as remove the political obstacles that the US administration had imposed to impede the writing off of Sudan’s foreign debts.

Sudanese officials often complain that the U.S. breached its pledges following the signing of the North-South peace accord by adding the issue of Darfur to the conditions of normal relations with Washington.

Washington said that even if Khartoum is removed from the list it would still expect Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, which have been leveled against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The United States continues to believe that President Bashir should cooperate with the ICC,” Carson said.

“The United States has taken a very clear position that you need to have justice and accountability with regard to Darfur and that position doesn’t change,” Lyman told AFP.

The ICC first charged Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2009. The court added three genocide charges in July 2010.

“Irrespective of this, we seek a better relationship with the government of Sudan, which is possible,” said Carson, adding that Washington could also seek to have a higher level of diplomatic representation in Khartoum.

Currently, Washington is represented in Khartoum by a charge d’Affaires and a deputy chief of mission.

“We look to have a normalized relationship with a government in Sudan, notwithstanding the need for President Bashir to answer the charges leveled against him by the international community and the ICC,” said Carson.

(ST)