Sudan's transitional government and the United States (US) are poised to reach an agreement for Khartoum to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to victims of a 1998 al-Qaeda attack.
Delisting would relieve Sudan from a long list of damaging sanctions, including: bans on buying US arms and on US economic aid; a US veto of loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank; and a prohibition on US citizens engaging in financial transactions with Sudan.
Recall that the reason the victims of the 1998 bombings were granted the right to seek compensation from Sudan was because 'Sudan had knowingly served as a safe haven near the two United States embassies and allowed al-Qaeda to plan and train for the attacks,' as US District Court Judge John Bates found in 2011.
Now, with last year's ousting of Omar al-Bashir - the president who gave Al-Qaeda the springboard to attack the US embassies - Sudan seems poised to become an important regional ally of the greatest enemy of the radical Islamists.
Judd Devermont, Africa Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says even if the US lifts its block on Sudan's access to such loans, Sudan will have to pay its arrears before they'll lend it new money.
