Pompeo’s Visit to Sudan Marks Watershed for Ex-Pariah State
Pompeo’s Visit to Sudan Marks Watershed for Former Pariah State
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo became the highest-ranking U.S. official in more than a decade to visit Sudan, underlining a dramatic turnaround in relations with the African country that was an international pariah under former dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Pompeo arrived Tuesday in Sudan, where he’s meeting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, who heads the Sovereign Council, the most powerful constituent of the transitional government that’s supposed to lead Sudan toward elections in 2022.
Pompeo, visiting during a wider Middle Eastern tour, will express support for deepening Sudan’s relationship with Israel, which no Sudanese government since independence in 1956 has officially recognized.
The visit would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Bashir -- who seized power in a 1989 coup, promised an Islamic revolution and for a time sheltered militant groups -- had just been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in the western region of Darfur. Relations with the West, however, began to thaw in the final years of his reign, with the U.S. lifting 20-year-old economic sanctions on Sudan in 2017. Bashir was overthrown by the army last year amid mass protests.
The country, which hosted Osama bin Laden in the 1990s and Israel later identified as a conduit for weapons bound for its enemies, is still designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. Sudanese authorities have overturned many of the pillars of Bashir’s rule and put the 76-year-old on trial while vigorously campaigning for its de-listing, a step they say is crucial to rebuild an economy ruined by corruption and mismanagement.
Burhan met Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda in February and initially agreed on working toward normalizing relations. The encounter sparked controversy at home, where the civilian component of his power-sharing government suggested it hadn’t been consulted.
Last week, following the United Arab Emirates’ pact with Israel, a Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said his country was looking forward to its own peace deal. He was promptly fired and the foreign minister disavowed his remarks. Israeli officials, though, have indicated Sudan may be among countries to follow the UAE’s lead.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.