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U.S. Ambassador To Return To Sudan "In Near Future"
KHARTOUM, March 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. ambassador to Sudan, withdrawn by Washington in 1996 over charges the African country was sponsoring terrorism, will return to Khartoum "in the near future", the official SUNA news agency reported Saturday, March 16.
A U.S. ambassador will "return to Khartoum in the near future," SUNA quoted U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Tibor Nagy as telling Sudan's minister of state for foreign affairs, Chul Deng, in Addis Ababa on Friday March 15.
The United States withdrew its diplomats from Khartoum in 1996 following allegations that Sudan was supporting terrorism, but subsequently reintroduced representation in Khartoum at the level of charge d'affaires.
Washington "has decided to change its policy towards the Sudan to a positive one based on dialogue and participation in all efforts, aimed at resolving the south Sudan problem," Nagy said.
The United States has recently stepped up diplomatic efforts in Sudan, with President George W. Bush in September naming former Senator John Danforth to the region to work to end the 18-year old civil war, pitting mostly Christian and animist southern rebels against the regime in Khartoum, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Following the Sudanese air force's deadly bombing of civilians in the war-torn south of the country last month, the United States suspended contacts with the Sudanese government.
But the United States subsequently said Sudan’s government had undertaken not to target civilians.
Over the last two years, Sudan's regime has tried to give Washington indications that it is not supporting terrorist groups, placing under house arrest Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi, and opening to the CIA its files on the activities of Osama bin Laden, who lived in Khartoum from 1990 to 1996.
Khartoum has been particularly anxious to distance itself from radical groups following the September 11 attacks on the United States, amid fears that it might become the next target of the US-led war on terror.
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