US President Donald Trump had announced on 26 October that he was delisting Sudan, 27 years after Washington first put the country on its blacklist for harbouring militant groups.
"The congressional notification period of 45 days has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating rescission of Sudan's State Sponsor of Terrorism designation," the US embassy in Khartoum said on Facebook.
The measure "is effective as of today [14 December], to be published in the Federal Register."
The move opens the way for aid, debt relief and investment to a country going through a rocky political transition and struggling under a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Attacks on US embassies
As part of a deal, Sudan agreed to pay $335 million to compensate survivors and victims' families from the twin 1998 al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and a 2000 attack by the jihadist group on the USS Cole off Yemen's coast.
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Those attacks were carried out after dictator Omar al-Bashir had allowed then al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden sanctuary in Sudan.
Bashir was deposed by the military in April 2019, following four months of street protests against his iron-fisted rule.
Relations with Israel
Sudan in October became the third Arab country in as many months to pledge that it would normalise relations with Israel, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
But unlike the UAE and Bahrain, Sudan has yet to agree a formal deal with Israel, amid wrangling within the fractious transitional power structure over the move.
Families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks had called on lawmakers to reject the State Department's proposal, saying they want to pursue legal action against Sudan.
(with AFP)
