WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday extended
sanctions on Sudan for another year, saying Khartoum's policies had not yet
improved enough to warrant their removal.
Obama's order maintains several sets of U.S. sanctions imposed since 1997
which restrict U.S. trade and investment with Sudan and block the assets of
the Sudanese government and certain officials.
The United States had offered Khartoum the chance to put relations on a
better footing if it cooperated with the January referendum that set South
Sudan on the path to declare its independence on July 9.
While the vote went off relatively smoothly, Khartoum and the South Sudan
government in Juba have remained at loggerheads over the main oil-producing
border state of South Kordofan, where rebels and government forces have
repeatedly clashed since June.
Violence has also broken out in Blue Nile and Abyei states, while U.S.
officials say they have not seen sufficient progress in western Darfur
region, where mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Khartoum in 2003
leading to a harsh government crackdown that Washington and some activists
labeled genocide.
Khartoum has denied the genocide charge, and repeatedly urged the United
States to drop punitive measures against it which include its inclusion on
an official U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The United States has so far taken some small initial steps to lift export
controls on agricultural machinery to help Sudan's struggling food sector,
but has stressed that further progress is contingent on Khartoum's behavior.
Washington has lifted sanctions on South Sudan, hoping to help the new
country gain its economic footing. But it is still seeking to clarify
implementation of sanctions on Sudan's oil industry, which is deeply
interconnected between the two countries.
Sudan's foreign ministry condemned the extension of the sanctions.
"The government of Sudan strongly condemns the renewal of these sanctions,"
the ministry said in a statement. "The sanctions imposed by the U.S.
administration are political sanctions which were and still are aimed at
damaging Sudan's vital interests by hindering development ambitions and
plans to fight poverty."
Khartoum has always said that the sanctions hit ordinary Sudanese, who face
an economic crisis and spiralling inflation after the independence of South
Sudan, which took most of the country's oil production.
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Received on Wed Nov 02 2011 - 13:37:57 EDT