Gov't hopes US sanctions will be lifted

The Sudanese government has said it hopes US sanctions will soon be lifted after top-level talks in New York last week. Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry told IRIN the issue was discussed privately between US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner and Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail. "We understand that when they talk about lifting sanctions they would also drop Sudan from the terrorism list," he said. "It is just a matter of time." Sudan was included on the US terrorist list in 1993, as a result of "Islamist links" with international terrorist organisations, according to the State Department. Economic, trade and financial sanctions were imposed by the US in October 1997. Fraught relations between the two governments continued throughout the 1990s with the last US ambassador to Sudan leaving in 1998, just before Washington launched cruise missile strikes on a pharmaceutical plant outside Khartoum. The US claimed the factory was producing ingredients for a deadly nerve gas and that the attacks were a retaliation for US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, while the Sudanese maintained that the plant produced a large percentage of the country's vital medicines. However in May 2000, both countries began a dialogue on counter-terrorism and since the 11 September 2001 terrorist bombings in New York and Washington, Sudan has "provided concrete cooperation against international terrorism", the State Department said.