Hamdok calls on US to remove country from terrorism list KHARTOUM, CAIRO: Sudan’s prime minister has approved 14 members of his Cabinet, the first to be appointed since the fall of long-term leader Omar Al-Bashir in April, a source said on Tuesday. The nominations include Sudan’s first female foreign minister, and a former World Bank economist as its new finance minister who will a face an economic crisis that has deepened in recent months. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok approved them along with 12 other new ministers, a member of the main civilian group in the ruling Sovereign Council said. Asmaa Abdallah had been chosen as foreign minister, according to the member of the Forces for Freedom and Change grouping, who spoke on condition of anonymity. HIGHLIGHTS • The government will lead a three-year transition to elections under a power-sharing deal between the military and civilian opposition. • Full Cabinet is expected to be announced in the next two days. Ibrahim Elbadawi would serve as finance minister, the source added. Adel Ibrahim was tapped to lead the Energy and Mining Ministry, the source said. Gen. Jamal Aldin Omar will lead the defense portfolio, he added. The government will lead a three-year transition to elections under a power-sharing deal between the military and civilian opposition. Hamdok was expected to announce the full Cabinet in the next two days, state news agency SUNA said. German FM in Sudan SUNA on Tuesday reported that the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas arrived in Sudan in the first such visit to the African country by a top German diplomat since 2011. Addressing a joint press conference with Maas, Hamdok said: “We believe that the situation is suitable for removing Sudan from the terrorism list.” The US in late 2017 lifted economic sanctions that it had imposed on Sudan in 1997, but kept the country on its “terror” blacklist along with Iran, North Korea and Syria. Sudan has been “in negotiations with the Americans and (we) expect there would be progress on removing Sudan from the terrorism list,” Hamdok said. Hamdok stressed that Sudan’s long-term economic revival is dependent on building a suitable environment for boosting the manufacturing sector, which in turn is linked to Washington’s blacklist. Maas said integration of Sudan into the global economy was essential. “I am confident that we will ... lay the foundation that gets Sudan the international support that it needs at this important stage,” he said. But implicitly acknowledging that the process may take some time, he said removal from the US blacklist “will depend largely on development and reforms in Sudan over the coming weeks and months.”