Sudan: More Domestic Engagement

19 August 2018

Three developments took place recently that worth a careful review as they will have their impact on the Sudanese-American bilateral relations. In the spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia, the United States kept mum on supporting its northern ally publicly, and in effect went step further by equating the two countries as close allies, thus Trump administration distanced itself from the conventional US position in defending human rights all over the world. The second development is that Washington has finally stopped looking at Sudan through the South Sudan prism and the long history of animosity. It even went step further and started even to push for punitive measures against Juba and missed no opportunity in expressing its skepticism on the outcome of Khartoum's efforts to conclude a peace deal for South Sudan. The third is the change in the US focus on combatting terrorism with a new strategy that highlights state threats from sources like Russia, China and North Korea more than from terrorist organizations.

On the face of it the apparent lack of enthusiasm from the Trump administration to drum on human rights issues should be a welcomed development by Khartoum, who had complained from western meddling into its own affairs under the pretext of defending human rights, but clearly the issue is not out of the woods yet, though it may come under a new title.

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