SUDAN, CALLS FOR US SECRETARY OF STATE REMOVAL FROM US BLACK LIST

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has said he discussed his country’s listing by the US as a state sponsor of terror with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his visit to Khartoum.
Sudan wants to be removed from the list so sanctions can be lifted.
The country has been listed since the 1990s when al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden lived there, as a guest of ex-President Omar al Bashir’s government.
Bashir has since been overthrown and relations with the US have eased.
Sudan is named along with North Korea, Iran and Syria.
The country’s leaders are desperate to end the country’s economic isolation and gain access to the dollar-based international financial system to attract loans and investment.
One of the key conditions set by the US for Sudan to be removed from the list was to compensate the families of 17 US sailors who died when their ship, the USS Cole, was bombed by al-Qaeda at a port in Yemen in 2000.