Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House panel on Africa, called the decision by the Trump Administration to delay any easing of sanctions against Sudan well-justified and prudent—an important step towards helping the Sudanese people.
The announcement, a delay of three months, is a response to the eleventh-hour Obama administration Executive Order 13761, delivered just days before he left office. The order would have gone into effect this week had the current administration not postponed the easing of sanctions for further review.
“Congress and all recent administrations have considered sanctions relief as an incentive for Khartoum to reach and abide by various peace agreements involving Darfur and South Sudan,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, whenever we have come to a point when such relief could be considered, the Sudan government took actions that made relief impossible, including repeated bombing of the inhabitants in the Nuba Mountains and facilitation of attacks by Janjaweed militia in the Darfur region—actions that were later declared to be genocide by the Bush Administration in 2004.”
The Trump Administration’s decision to put a hold on sanctions relief for the Islamist regime in Khartoum—which once harbored Osama bin Laden—provides an opportunity to examine compliance and strengthen the Executive Order. The delay will enable the Trump Administration to press Sudan on improving human rights, which was not a requirement of the Obama Administration order but which has been raised by religious freedom advocates and was a major topic of discussion at an April 26th Africa Subcommittee hearing convened by Smith.
The Obama Administration’s justification of its decision on sanctions was done in the absence of congressional consultation and presented as a fait accompli. It would have freed more than $30 million in frozen Sudanese assets, allowed commercial transactions in all sectors and liberalized licenses to do business in Sudan. Commercial transactions prohibited as a result of the designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism and Darfur-specific targeted actions would still have been in place.
“I could support sanctions relief under the right circumstances. As I saw first-hand on a recent congressional delegation I led to South Sudan, the Sudanese have helped the United States transport approximately 4,000 metric tons of food to help the hungry people in South Sudan, and there is other evidence of cooperation. However, there is too much that needs to be verified to conclude that the all requirements of sanctions relief are being met,” Smith explained.
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