Sudan’s acting FM says US conditioning removal from terror list on normalization with Israel

Sudan’s acting foreign minister says the United States has conditioned Khartoum’s removal from a list of state sponsors of terrorism on its normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel.

“Even if this was the will of the Sudanese street, it is important that defined conditions for normalization be fulfilled,” Omar Qamar al-Din Ismail tells the Sudanese newspaper Al-Tayyar, according to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.

Ismail says Sudanese leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan discussed these conditions with US Secreterary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter’s visit to Khartoum last month.

“The conditions revolve around the question of what is the economic gain that Sudan will rake in and when it will be removed from the terror list. Pompeo said the administration will examine this with the Israeli side,” Ismail says.

He also says Sudan’s transitional government doesn’t have the authority to make a decision such as normalizing ties with Israel, echoing comments made by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok during Pompeo’s visit.

Sudan has been widely mentioned as the next Arab country that could normalize ties with Israel after the UAE agreed to do so as part of a US-brokered agreement.