Sudan’s President Omar Al BashirSudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday suspended sanctions talks with the United States, a day after the Trump administration announced that it would maintain sanctions against the north African country for another three months.
The Sudanese President asked a committee negotiating sanctions relief with the United States to stop any interaction for now, according to state news agency SUNA.
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it will keep sanctions against Sudan for another three months until October 12 over its human right records and support for terror groups in the north African region.
At a teleconference on Wednesday, three senior American officials explained the Trump administration’s decision.
Executive Order 13761, issued in January 13 by former President Barack Obama, provided for sanctions relief for Sudan if the Government of Sudan sustained positive actions that gave rise to that order.
The positive actions included maintaining a cessation of hostilities in the conflict areas in Sudan, continuing improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, and maintaining cooperation with the U.S. A key issue was countering the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“So the administration recognizes Sudan has made significant progress in these areas over the last six months, but given that a new administration came in in January and looking at where we’ve gone and where we will go, the administration decided that it needed more time to review Sudan’s actions and to establish that the government has demonstrated sustained, positive actions across all the areas that are set out in the executive order,” the first official said.
“As a result, the President yesterday issued a new executive order that extended the review period for three months. The Government of Sudan, if it is assessed at the end of that review period to have sustained positive actions as we’ve been discussing, the United States will revoke the sanctions. But there was a feeling that the additional time was needed to ensure that, given the scope and gravity of this decision, we reached the proper outcome,” the official added.
The official said the Trump administration is “committed to sustaining this discussion as well as engaging with the Government of Sudan on other vital issues outside of the five-track arrangement, including intensifying our ongoing and fairly intense already dialogue on improving Sudan’s human rights and religious freedom record, and also to ensure that, like we are on track with that throughout the globe, committed to the full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea”
The senior official added: “In that throughout the course of the extended review period, the OFAC license that was issued in January remains in effect, and what that does essentially is it authorizes U.S. persons to engage in transactions involving Sudan, authorizes imports and exports, and engage in transactions that involve property related to the Government of Sudan”
“So this general license allows these actions that had been prohibited under previous executive orders as it has for the last six months, and as we go forward – additional three months of the review period, this will stay in place”.