US Mulling Lifting Sudan off Terror List as Uganda Considers Offering Bashir Asylum

Protesters in Khartoum, Sudan. (Reuters)
Protesters in Khartoum, Sudan. (Reuters)
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US Mulling Lifting Sudan off Terror List as Uganda Considers Offering Bashir Asylum

Protesters in Khartoum, Sudan. (Reuters)
Protesters in Khartoum, Sudan. (Reuters)

The United States said Tuesday it may consider lifting Sudan off the state sponsor of terrorism list if the country’s leadership and policies change and the military no longer holds power.

“We will be willing to look at removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism if there is significant change in the country’s leadership and policies,” a US State Department official told Reuters.

The Trump administration suspended talks on normalizing relations with Sudan after the military deposed veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir last week saying it would oversee a two-year transition, followed by elections.

Separately, Uganda said it would consider granting asylum to Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

"If Uganda is approached to grant asylum to Bashir it is an issue that can be considered at the highest level of our leadership," state minister for foreign affairs Henry Okello Oryem told AFP.

He said that as a result of Bashir's key role in mediating a peace deal in neighboring South Sudan, "his asylum in Uganda is what the government of Uganda can consider."

In the meantime, "Uganda is keenly following the developments in Sudan and we ask the new leadership there to respect the aspirations of the Sudanese people among them peaceful transfer of power to the civilian rule".

Bashir's three-decade reign was toppled last week by top commanders after four months of nationwide demonstrations.

Protest leaders say Bashir must face justice, however the transitional military council currently leading the country has said it will not extradite the ousted leader.

The council says Bashir remains in custody, but has not specified his whereabouts or that of other senior regime leaders.

Uganda is one of several African nations which have hosted Bashir in the past without handing him over to the ICC, despite being signatories of the tribunal.

Bashir faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur.



Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
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Libya Receives Invitation from Greece to Maritime Zone Talks to Ease Strained Ties

Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo
Children play by the tents, as recently arrived migrants shelter at the temporary migrants' camp staged on a soccer pitch in the region of Rethymno in Crete island, Greece, June 24, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis/File Photo

Greece has invited Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli to start talks on demarcating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.

The move is aimed at mending relations between the two neighbors, strained by a controversial maritime deal signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Türkiye, Greece's long-standing foe, which mapped out a sea area close to the Greek island of Crete.

"We invite - and I think you may soon see progress in this area - we invite the Tripoli government to discuss with Greece the delimitation of a continental shelf and an exclusive economic zone," Mitsotakis told local Skai television, Reuters reported.

Greece this year launched a new tender to develop its hydrocarbon resources off Crete, a move that Libya has objected to, saying some of the blocks infringed its own maritime zones.

Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.

Therefore, any communication with Libya was not easy, Mitsotakis said. He indicated that Greece was determined to continue talking to both the Tripoli-based government and a parallel administration based in Benghazi.

In recent months, Athens has sought closer cooperation with Libya to help stem a surge in migrant arrivals from the North African country to Greece's southern islands of Gavdos and Crete and passed legislation banning migrants arriving from Libya by sea from requesting asylum.

In an incident earlier this month, the European Union migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece were denied entry to the eastern part of divided Libya, shortly after meeting the internationally recognized government that controls the west of Libya.