KHARTOUM
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said that ties between his country and the United States were seeing a "breakthrough" after years of enmity.
"Sudanese diplomacy managed to break the barrier in dialogue with the U.S. Congress," al-Bashir said during a meeting with representatives from the Sudanese community in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) late Tuesday.
"Our country has overcome all challenges that troubled our relations with several countries, including the United States," he was quoted by Sudanese Ashorooq channel as saying.
The remarks came a few days after U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights Steven Feldstein arrived in Khratoum on a one-week visit upon an invitation from the Sudanese Foreign Ministry.
The visit came on the heels of rare talks between presidential assistant Ibrahim Ghandour and U.S. officials in Washington, the first such encounter between senior officials from both sides in years.
Following Ghandour's visit, the U.S. administration amended Sudan’s sanctions to allow exports of personal communications hardware and software including smart phones and laptops.
Relations between Washington and Khartoum deeply soured after al-Bashir's rise to power in a 1989 coup that was backed by the country's Islamists.
The United States placed Sudan on its list of states sponsoring international terrorism in 1993, and four years later, it imposed comprehensive economic, trade, and financial sanctions on Khartoum.
