Do not remove US sanctions on Khartoum before real change in Sudan

by Walid Phares

Nuba children in hiding

Today the US Administration will decide whether or not to remove sanctions against the Khartoum regime, based on several reports by various departments. My recommendation to President Trump is not to remove the sanctions based on the following considerations.

1. The violent actions by the regime against civil society in Darfur, where genocide has been declared by the UN and the US years ago, continues. It must stop.

2. The regime’s suppression of ethnic communities in the Nuba Mountains, East Sudan and Nubians in the North continues and has escalated.

3. The regime’s suppression of its own Arab democratic opposition is ongoing.

4. The regime is still siding with the Muslim Brotherhood against Egypt and the Arab Coalition.

The so-called measures by the regime against “terrorists” are a facade aimed at obtaining the lifting of the sanctions. The Trump Administration must maintain the sanctions until meaningful change comes to Khartoum. This position is in line with the Trump Administration’s geopolitical policies which were announced during the campaign as well as in Riyadh and in Brussels. It also expresses the position of a large bipartisan majority in Congress.

https://www.ft.com/content/22042a4e-65ae-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614?conceptId=366498ab-0944-39b1-b852-f075ff307c19&desktop=true&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a