Sudan says its leader has been invited to US amid hopes for leaving blacklist

After Netanyahu meets with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Uganda, his office says PM told US secretary of state he believes Khartoum ‘is moving in a new and positive direction’

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan said Sunday that the US had invited the head of its ruling body to Washington for an official visit, the first such move in more than three decades.

The ruling civilian-led sovereign council said its chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan received the invitation in a telephone call from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier on Sunday.

“General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would make the visit soon,” the council said in a statement, without further details.

The statement came a day before Burhan met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda.

Netanyahu’s office said the two agreed to start a process to normalize relations between the countries, which currently do not have formal relations.

“The prime minister believes that Sudan is moving in a new and positive direction and the prime minister expressed this view to the American secretary of state,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) welcomes US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to his residence in Jerusalem, on March 21, 2019. (Jim Young/Pool/AFP)

Relations between the northeast African country and the US soured in the 1990s, after now-toppled leader Omar al-Bashir seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, upon ousting an elected government.

In 1993, the US blacklisted Sudan as state sponsor of terrorism as Bashir’s regime hosted Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who resided in the country between 1992-1996.

Washington further stepped up its measures against Sudan by imposing tough trade sanctions on the country in 1997.

It lifted those restrictions in October 2017, but has kept Sudan on its “state sponsor of terrorism” list, along with North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

Sudan’s ex-president Omar al-Bashir appears in court in the capital Khartoum to face charges of illegal acquisition and use of foreign funds, on August 31, 2019. (Ebrahim Hamid/AFP)

However, talks to remove Sudan from the blacklist have gained momentum since Bashir’s ouster last April. Several delegations of US officials and members of Congress have visited Sudan to analyze the situation.

Bashir was removed by the army in a palace coup on the back of a nationwide protest movement against his iron-fisted regime.

Since August, Sudan has been ruled by the civilian-majority sovereign council headed by Burhan, which is tasked with overseeing the country’s transition to civilian rule, as demanded by protesters.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.