Did President Trump Defer the Decision on Sudan Sanctions to October 31, 2017?

by Jerry Gordon and Deborah Martin

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan

This evening a number of us received an email from Ken Isaacs of Samaritans Purse this evening containing what appears to be a press statement from the Executive Office of the President Trump indicating that the decision on possible permanently lifting the 20 year sanctions against the Sudan regime of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir may have been deferred from July 11, 2017 to October 31, 2017. 

Isaacs sent an email “confirming that this press release came from the White House regarding the Presiden’ts executive order on the sanctions on Sudan.”

On June 30, 2017, the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a bi-partisan letter to President Trump recommending that he defer any decision on the Sudan sanctions for at least a year to permit the appoinment of a new Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan and assembly a team to conduct investigations into the situation and Sudan alleged compliance with the five tracks enumerated in the Executive Order No. Executive Order No. 13761. 

In our New English Review/Iconoclast article, Secret Plan of the Bashir Regime Reinforces Rejecting Lifting Sudan Sanctions, we revealed key revelations contained in the “Top Secret” minutes of The Security Intelligence and Political Committee of Crisis Management held in the Office of the Director of the Sudan National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on June 18, 2017. The secret document had been obtained by a reliable informed source and was translated.

Attending the Khartoum meeting were the power elite of the reigning National Congress Party (NCP) regime: President Bashir, Vice President Backri Hassan Salih, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Gandur, Minister of Defense Awad bn Ouf, Hamid Momtaz Secretary of NCP political affairs, and State Minister in the Ministry of foreign affairs, General Mohamed Atta al Mola Director of NISS, General Ibrahim Mohamed al Hassan, Commander of Military Intelligence, Ibrahim Mhamud Vice President of NCP and Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Omer President of Parliament.

The minutes of this Crisis Management Committee revealed the broad sweep of plans for assassination of a major Sudan resistance commander in the Nuba Mountains and senior Officers supporting him. It also addressed sponsorship of international ISIS terrorist activities in the Sahel region of Africa, especially in Libya, and the global Muslim Brotherhood Organization. It elucidated web of deception in the Bashir regime’s influence campaign in Washington, DC to lift sanctions by the Trump Administration. The secret minutes suggest that the Sudan prevailed on Saudi Arab to ask former President Omaha to lift the Sudan sanctions.

 These top secret minutes also reflect the Bashir regime’s position in the current dispute between Qatar and four Arab Countries: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate, Bahrain and Egypt. It reveals that relations with Iran secretly continue despite the public cutoff in 2015.  

The revelations in this NISS document further the case of the letter signed by Members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee sent to President Trump on June 30, 2017. The following are excerpts from a translation  of  the Sudan NISS Crisis Management Committee at the June 18, 2017 meeting.  We have links to both the complete minutes in both the original Arabic and the English translation.  Links to Arabic original and English translation.

Below is the text conveyed in Ken Isaacs’ email that purports to have been issued by White Hourse:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



July 11, 2017



EXECUTIVE ORDER

– – – – – – –



ALLOWING ADDITIONAL TIME FOR RECOGNIZING POSITIVE ACTIONS



BY THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN AND AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13761



     By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7201-7211), the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004, as amended (Public Law 108-497), the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006 (Public Law 109?344), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,



     I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, in order to take additional steps to address the emergency described in Executive Order 13067 of November 3, 1997, Executive Order 13412 of October 13, 2006, and Executive Order 13761 of January 13, 2017, with respect to the policies and actions of the Government of Sudan, including additional fact-finding and a more comprehensive analysis of the Government of Sudan’s actions, hereby order as follows:



     Section 1.  Amendments to Executive Order 13761.  (a)  Section 1 of Executive Order 13761 is hereby amended by striking “July 12, 2017” and inserting in lieu thereof “October 12, 2017”.



     (b)  Section 10 of Executive Order 13761 is hereby amended by striking “July 12, 2017” and inserting in lieu thereof “October 12, 2017”.



     (c)  Subsection (b) of section 12 of Executive Order 13761 is hereby amended by striking “July 12, 2017” and inserting in lieu thereof “October 12, 2017”.



     (d)  Section 11 of Executive Order 13761 is hereby revoked.



     Sec. 2.  General Provision.  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

                                DONALD J. TRUMP



THE WHITE HOUSE,

 

    July 11, 2017.