US ENVOY WANTS SUDAN SANCTIONS LIFTED

The Obama administration’s envoy to Sudan has called for removing Khartoum from the US terrorism blacklist and ending sanctions on the Arab country. “There’s no evidence in our intelligence community that supports (Sudan) being on the state sponsors of terrorism,” retired general Scott Gration told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The US envoy said the sanctions are “hurting the very development” needed to keep a fragile peace in Sudan. “The consequences of the sanctions that result from that, and other sanctions, are preventing us from doing the development we absolutely need to do. We’re going to have to unwind some of these sanctions so that we can do the very things we need to do to ensure a peaceful transition to a state that is viable in the south, if they choose to do that.”