NCP says visits of US officials to Sudan are normal
May 18, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The political secretary of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Mustafa Osman Ismail minimized an ongoing visit to Khartoum by staff members of the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Donald Booth.
“Contacts with US officials had not been interrupted,” said Ismail when asked about the visit of the American officials without further details.
Officials at the foreign ministry refused to comment on the visit when Sudan Tribune reached them on Sunday.
Presidential assistant Ibrahim Ghandour was in Washington last February where he held talks with American officials at the White House and State Department on bilateral relations.
On 11 February, US State Department said that discussions with Ghandour “included ways to advance a more frequent and substantive exchange about our respective interests and concerns in the region, including ways to achieve a sustainable peace in Sudan”.
Sudan is under economic sanctions since October 1997 because of alleged support of terrorist groups. In 2007, the administration of president Bush imposed additional sanctions and called to end the campaign of violence in Darfur.
Last year, Washington tightened enforcement of the existing sanction and put pressure on international and regional banking institutions to observe the sanctions imposed on Sudan.
After his return to Khartoum, Ghandour said they agreed to continue the dialogue adding it could take place either in Khartoum or Washington.
In November 23013 Sudan refused to receive Booth and informed Washington that any role for the US should begin with seeking to normalize bilateral ties between the two countries and addressing the issue of unilateral sanctions and Sudan’s inclusion on a blacklist of states that sponsor terrorism.
(ST)