Document of the Week: Pompeo Seeks Deal to Remove Sudan From Terrorist List Before U.S. Election

For months, U.S. lawmakers and diplomats have engaged in grueling behind-the-scenes negotiations with a fragile civilian-led government in Sudan to remove the country from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The designation harkens back more than two decades to a time Sudan was ruled by an authoritarian who helped al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden orchestrate deadly attacks against U.S. embassies in Africa. The designation turned Sudan into an international pariah and blocked the country from the international financial system.

Now, following a revolution last year that ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir and established a civilian-led government, the Trump administration is looking to change that. In exchange, Khartoum would settle about $335 million worth of decades-old legal claims with the families of victims of terrorist attacks that Bashir’s government abetted, including the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the deadly bombing in 2000 of the USS Cole in Yemen.