Blacklisting Sudan endangering democracy: Prime Minister Hamdok

Even as Sudan confirms that it is, by no means, sponsoring terrorism, the United States maintains the country’s name among the list of the countries blacklisted for sponsoring terrorism in the world.

Keeping this in mind, the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said that if the US continues to keep Sudan’s name in the lits, it will hamper the country’s path to democracy reported Financial Times.

He further added in an interview on Sunday that if Sudan’s name is removed from the list, it would be a game-changer. These sanctions that come with blacklisting are endangering Sudan’s economy, asserted the Prime Minister. He also gave reference to bin Laden saying that they had expelled bin Laden over two decades ago and Bashir’s regime was also overthrown last year.

"We are isolated from the world," Hamdok said. "Sudanese people have never been terrorists. This was the deeds of the former regime," he told the Financial Times.

He also addressed speculations of Sudan normalizing ties with Israel if its blacklisting is removed. He said that they would like to consider these two tracks separately. Over the last few days, there has been speculation that Israel is making an attempt to reach out to Sudan and even the latter is interested in normalizing the ties.

It was only last month that the US had meditated peace deals between Israel and two of the middle eastern countries---the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. With this, the Trump administration wants Sudan to follow in their footsteps.

In the interview, Hamdok also said that till the 2022 elections, nothing can be said on the democratic transition. "Transitions are always messy. They are non-linear and they don’t travel in one direction," he said.

Sudan’s economy has long been struggling due to the Civil war under Bashir’s rule and sanctions by the US since 2011. Another reason why this crisis has been going on in Sudan is because of the separation of South Sudan from Sudan. South Sudan is actually the oil-rich are which runs the economy.