Mike Pompeo greets Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Khartoum during a visit by the US Secretary of State in August. — Handout Office of Sudan’s Prime Minister/AFP
US President Donald Trump had announced in October that he was delisting Sudan, 27 years after Washington first put the country on its blacklist for harbouring Islamist militants. Bashir was deposed by the military in April 2019, following four months of street protests against his iron-fisted rule and 30 years after an Islamist backed coup had brought him to power.
But unlike the UAE and Bahrain, Sudan has yet to agree a formal deal with Israel, amid wrangling within the fractious transitional power structure over the move. Sudan’s transition has lately displayed major signs of internal strain, with army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — who doubles as the head of the Sovereign Council — last week blasting the power sharing institutions.