SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Foreign Policy - How To U.S. Presidents Reshaped America's Policy Toward Sudan

9/4/19: Foreign Policy – How Two U.S. Presidents Reshaped America’s Policy Toward Sudan, by Justin Lynch and Robbie Gramer

 Foreign Policy examines the “secrecy and contradiction” of US relations with Sudan, arguing that “Washington has helped legitimise the [Sudanese] regime.”

 After Sudan halted intelligence cooperation with the US in 2015, the article highlights Obama administration plans to drop sanctions and remove Sudan’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation, in exchange for improving counterterrorism cooperation, access to humanitarian aid, and other priorities. The Trump administration has continued this policy, but “has been hobbled by a chaotic decision-making process and vacancies in key senior roles across government,” according to 3 anonymous US officials.

 A senior US State Department official attributed Omar Al Bashir’s “relatively restrained” reactions to the ongoing protests to increasing US engagement, adding that the process to remove Sudan’s terror designation is “slowly” moving forward, and that repaired US-Sudan relations hinge on progress in human rights, religious freedom, and other issues.