Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum


Finally, the American Embassy in Khartoum - the largest among the United States embassies in Africa - will receive an ambassador to Khartoum, after Washington's diplomatic representation has been in force for 23 years.

But the upgrade - according to analysts and politicians - remains without the ambition of Sudan, which has preoccupied issues with the United States that touches the bone of its faltering economy and its warm foreign policy.

Since last Saturday, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdock began a six-day official visit to the United States to hold official talks with US officials in the ministries of defense, treasury, foreign affairs, and Congress.

Hamdouk's visit, which was accompanied by ministers of justice, religious affairs, youth and sports, is aimed at dropping sanctions by removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

America manipulates the feelings of the Sudanese "two words" about the exchange of ambassadors.
America's relations with the ousted Bashir regime were deeper than it appears.

- Khalid 🅰️ Al-Eisir (@Aleisir) December 5, 2019

Divergent opinions
Considering that the promotion of diplomatic representation is the most important fruit of the visit to Hamdouk so far; divergent views on the importance of the step in the stalled course of relations between the two countries.

Rashid Muhammad Ali Al-Sheikh, a researcher and professor of foreign relations, believes that the diplomatic upgrade is a reassuring message from Washington stating that it agrees to political change in Sudan, even if it came later after a chapter of monitoring and making sure of the change.

Sheikh says to the island Net that the step means to remove the file from the security space in support and sponsorship of terrorism, and transfer to the political space of dialogue and common interest.

But the head of the Union of Forces for the Nation and former presidential candidate Abdul-Mahmud Abdul-Jabbar said the diplomatic promotion was not new.

He goes on to say that the move involves deception of the Council of Ministers, and in turn are deceived by the forces of the declaration of freedom and change (the ruling coalition) of the Sudanese, because fundamentally there was no rupture between the two countries.

So today a new page in bilateral relations.

Hamdouk may not yet have all he wants, which is to remove the name # Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but it is a historic step in rebuilding Sudanese-American relations pic.twitter.com/SoiIB9Kgo8

- Lightning Sudan 🇸🇩 (@SDN_BARQ) December 5, 2019

Stage incentives
Abdul Jabbar shows in his talk to Al Jazeera Net that Sudan had an ambassador until the fall of the ousted regime of President Omar al-Bashir, General Amen Mohamed Atta.

He pointed out that the promotion does not mean anything to Washington, because it was coordinated fully with the military intelligence and the General Intelligence Service in Sudan in the files of terrorism and illegal immigration.

According to a diplomat, who preferred to withhold his name, what has now happened is that the diplomatic upgrading, merely the incentives of a period of the former regime, has now been hastily accepted.

Accordingly, according to the diplomat, Hamdok had to win some of his visit, and this was the decision to exchange ambassadors.

The Prime Minister advises against betting on some Sudanese activists in America because they are activists who have influence among human rights groups that can succeed in tightening sanctions, but they are not useful in the field of money and interests between the two countries.

Promises to start
Mahmoud Abdul-Jabbar reduces the results of Hamdock's visit to Washington, and believes that he started from where the Bashir regime began, which when the first phase of the two countries' dialogue ended, demanded that Sudan restore its benefits to America after separating South Sudan.

He says that the US administration has proposed diplomatic upgrading to the previous government, but Bashir has rejected and suggested first allowing limited transfers of funds in the range of thirty thousand dollars, saying he cannot transfer the salary of the Sudanese ambassador to Washington.

And then - according to Abdul-Jabbar - Washington asked to raise the capabilities of the banking system, which was rejected by Al-Bashir, who in turn suggested opening a branch of Citibank in Khartoum, so Washington requested a technical report from the bank’s branches in Nairobi and Bahrain to decide whether to open a branch of Citibank You will just have a window to the bank at the Bank of Khartoum

The man accuses the security apparatus of misleading Bashir with an anti-corruption campaign that targeted banks. Bashir attacked corruption there and the deputy chairman of the Bank of Khartoum was arrested, prompting Washington to recalculate its accounts.

Rashid Ali Al-Sheikh: the diplomatic upgrading has after him (Al-Jazeera Net)

Regional role
The diplomat explains that when the Americans rushed to enter the second phase of dialogue with the former regime without fulfilling their promises to normalize relations, there was a division within the institutions of the Sudanese government at the time.

He adds that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the security apparatus were their starting points for the second stage of the dialogue, while the presidency, the Bank of Sudan and the financial and business sector saw the necessity to reap the fruits of the first stage before resuming the dialogue.

But Professor of International Relations Rashid Muhammad Ali Al-Sheikh warns that the transitional government led by Hamdock managed, through transfers conducted at the state level, to recognize problems, to get Washington to deal with accurate calculations, and to restore control of the volatile region by recognizing change in Sudan.

"America needs to keep the region away from any security liquidity, and there may be regional roles for Sudan to stabilize the region, and America's last measurement questioned Sudan's regional importance, but the transitional government was able to refute the measurement."

Minutes after the announcement of the return of the US ambassador to Khartoum, twenty-three years after the freezing of relations, the hackers group, the stooge agents, the sleeper electronic cell in the French capital, and a number of American cities launching devastating electronic attacks on Sudanese media activities pic.twitter.com/8yuUsll1QP

- Mohamed Fadl Ali (@cyberspieswatch) December 4, 2019

Trump card
The Sheikh describes the American move as meaning the re-opening of Sudan to the region at the level of organizations and its return to the level of qualification, after the American measurement classified it as a country not eligible to deal.

He believes that diplomatic promotion has something beyond, and that America used the winning card, because the ambassador represents the country and moves easily, while the charge d'affaires cannot pass the specified role.

Although Abdul-Jabbar criticized accompanying the Minister of Religious Affairs, Youth, and Sports, instead of the Minister of Defense and Director of Intelligence, as was previously the case, to address Washington's concerns regarding terrorism, Rashid Al-Sheikh attributes this to transferring relations to its political dimension instead of security.

The comparison remains between Washington’s relations with Khartoum before and after the revolution, which was expressed by a Sudanese journalist based in London, Khaled Al-Ayser, in a tweet in his account on Twitter when he stated that Washington has Khartoum, the second largest embassy in the world, and its relationship with the Bashir regime was deeper than it appears.