February 9, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that the new administration in Washington will continue to support the civilian-led transitional government in Sudan.

In a phone call with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, Blinken applauded the country’s efforts "to deliver peace, justice, and freedom for the Sudanese people".

The readout of the call issued by U.S. State Department said the two men "discussed ways to promote economic reform and development, while also implementing recent peace agreements and addressing the root causes of violence in Darfur".

Blinken is the first and most senior U.S. official to open a public channel of communication with Khartoum since president Joe Biden officially took over last month.

A statement by Hamdok’s office said that the prime minister told the top U.S. diplomat that the bilateral ties between the two countries "entered a new era after the glorious December revolution and removing the name of Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism at the end of last year".

Hamdok also expressed Khartoum’s aspiration "for joint action on various issues and facing common challenges in a way that serves the interests of the two countries and leads to consolidating the values of peace, stability and coexistence in the country and the region".

Biden’s policy towards Sudan has yet to be unveiled or articulated but given that Hamdok was one of the earliest recipients of a call by Blinken relative to many world leaders it may suggest that the East African nation will be given some sort of priority under the new administration.

The former president Donald Trump retained an interest in Sudan last year after he managed to pressure it to recognize Israel in return to removing it from the list of states that sponsor terrorism and providing it with a financial package among other carrots.

Sudan currently wants the U.S. backing for multilateral debt relief from the Paris club and more financial assistance to weather the current economic crisis.

In a related issue, several U.S. tech companies have moved to lift restrictions, it has imposed on Sudan to comply with stats sponsor of terrorism designation.

A review of these companies’ websites showed that Apple, Oracle, VMware and Qualcomm took Sudan off the list of prohibited destinations.

A similar step was taken by Microsoft last week.

This follows the U.S. Department of Commerce publishing amendments last month to exports regulations to reflect the rescinding of Sudan’s terror designation.

(ST)