The United States will ease some financial sanctions against Sudan in recognition of what the Obama administration says are small areas of improvement in fighting terrorism and other U.S. goals, the White House announced last week.
The move, which lifts elements of a U.S. trade embargo in place since the Clinton administration, is a show of goodwill toward the government of longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.
In a letter to Congress announcing the executive action, President Barack Obama credited “Sudan’s positive actions over the past 6 months.”
“These actions include a marked reduction in offensive military activity, culminating in a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, and steps toward the improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, as well as cooperation with the U.S. on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism,” Mr. Obama wrote.
The president, who leaves office this week, delayed the effective date of the order for 180 days and ordered a progress report in six months.
The shift in policy was first reported by the Associated Press.
The action would leave in place the U.S. branding of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism as well as a raft of economic and political sanctions, some of which were applied in protest of the killing and displacement of ethnic minorities in the Darfur region. It also does not affect U.S. claims that Mr. Bashir has committed war crimes, the official said.
The Obama administration based the decision on findings that Sudan has ended military aerial bombardment in the Darfur region and other conflict areas and has helped counter the Islamic State group, including limiting movements by fighters. It is also based on the U.S. assertion that Sudan is allowing greater access to humanitarian relief in conflict areas including Darfur, denying haven to rebel fighters from South Sudan and stemming the flow of weapons as ethnic conflict rages there.
The limited sanctions relief could be reversed if Mr. Bashir’s cooperation flags, the official said, something that would fall to the incoming Trump administration to carry out. President-elect Donald Trump has not outlined any detailed views on Sudan, which was first labeled a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.
The unusual designation — Sudan, Iran and Syria are the only three countries so labeled — restricts U.S. foreign aid, bans defense exports and sales, and imposes various financial and other restrictions.
In 1998, the U.S. launched airstrikes on Sudan, a North African nation with a majority Arab population, over the harboring of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. has extremely limited diplomatic contact with Sudan, although in 2005, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited and met with Mr. Bashir in the capital Khartoum. She also visited a refugee camp in Darfur.
The shift, taken with just a week left in the Obama administration, partly reflects a view that ostracizing Mr. Bashir had not helped U.S. policy aims, people familiar with the decision said.
It is the culmination of a diplomatic initiative that began nearly two years ago, combining pressure and regular meetings between U.S. and Sudanese officials, said Zach Vertin, a former Obama administration official who worked on the issue and is now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
“For more than two decades there has been a policy dominated by pressure and sanctions, and for two decades that policy has largely failed,” Mr. Vertin said.
“It’s a cautious opening. It’s about demonstrating that Sudan can come in from the cold.”
The move, which lifts elements of a U.S. trade embargo in place since the Clinton administration, is a show of goodwill toward the government of longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.
In a letter to Congress announcing the executive action, President Barack Obama credited “Sudan’s positive actions over the past 6 months.”
“These actions include a marked reduction in offensive military activity, culminating in a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, and steps toward the improvement of humanitarian access throughout Sudan, as well as cooperation with the U.S. on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism,” Mr. Obama wrote.
The president, who leaves office this week, delayed the effective date of the order for 180 days and ordered a progress report in six months.
The shift in policy was first reported by the Associated Press.
The action would leave in place the U.S. branding of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism as well as a raft of economic and political sanctions, some of which were applied in protest of the killing and displacement of ethnic minorities in the Darfur region. It also does not affect U.S. claims that Mr. Bashir has committed war crimes, the official said.
The Obama administration based the decision on findings that Sudan has ended military aerial bombardment in the Darfur region and other conflict areas and has helped counter the Islamic State group, including limiting movements by fighters. It is also based on the U.S. assertion that Sudan is allowing greater access to humanitarian relief in conflict areas including Darfur, denying haven to rebel fighters from South Sudan and stemming the flow of weapons as ethnic conflict rages there.
The limited sanctions relief could be reversed if Mr. Bashir’s cooperation flags, the official said, something that would fall to the incoming Trump administration to carry out. President-elect Donald Trump has not outlined any detailed views on Sudan, which was first labeled a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.
The unusual designation — Sudan, Iran and Syria are the only three countries so labeled — restricts U.S. foreign aid, bans defense exports and sales, and imposes various financial and other restrictions.
In 1998, the U.S. launched airstrikes on Sudan, a North African nation with a majority Arab population, over the harboring of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. has extremely limited diplomatic contact with Sudan, although in 2005, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited and met with Mr. Bashir in the capital Khartoum. She also visited a refugee camp in Darfur.
The shift, taken with just a week left in the Obama administration, partly reflects a view that ostracizing Mr. Bashir had not helped U.S. policy aims, people familiar with the decision said.
It is the culmination of a diplomatic initiative that began nearly two years ago, combining pressure and regular meetings between U.S. and Sudanese officials, said Zach Vertin, a former Obama administration official who worked on the issue and is now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
“For more than two decades there has been a policy dominated by pressure and sanctions, and for two decades that policy has largely failed,” Mr. Vertin said.
“It’s a cautious opening. It’s about demonstrating that Sudan can come in from the cold.”