Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, President of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, arrived in the UAE, on Sunday, for the start of a two-day official visit to the GCC country.
According to a statement by the Sovereign Council, Al-Burhan was accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation and a number of experts and negotiation specialists.
The statement added that, during the two-day visit, Al-Burhan will hold joint talks with the UAE’s leadership on a range of regional issues related to the Sudanese issue.
The ministerial delegation, headed by Minister of Justice Nasreddin Abdel Bari, is also set to hold talks with a team from the US Administration. The US team has been present in the UAE as part of negotiations to remove Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.
Sudan is also seeking an exemption from overseas debts it has incurred, both in relation to the US as well as other countries.
The visit comes only a few days after US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, issued hints that Sudan will, in late October, be taken off the list of states supporting terrorism.
During a visit to Khartoum in late August, Pompeo said that the US will continue its support for the civilian-led transitional government, and that Sudan’s removal from the list remains a critical bilateral priority for both countries.
On Saturday, the US State Department welcomed the new Sudanese Ambassador to Washington DC, Noureddine Sati, as the first Sudanese Ambassador to the US for nearly a quarter of a century.
Ambassador Sati presented his credentials to US President Donald Trump as the first Sudanese ambassador to do so in 23 years. The State Department expressed its aspirations for progress in relations between the two countries.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, said that he is looking forward to progress in relations between the US and Sudan.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the US and Sudan have appointed only Chargé d’Affaires to run their respective embassies in Washington and Khartoum.
The US administration included Sudan on the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993, due to allegations that the government of former president Omar Al-Bashir was supporting militant groups.
The allegations ensured that Sudan was ineligible for debt relief or badly needed financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The Sudanese army ousted former President Omar Al-Bashir in April 2019, following popular protests that lasted for several months
