Sudan summons US envoy to protest new Trump travel ban
- By AFP -
- Mar 09, 2017
KHARTOUM: Sudan summoned on Thursday US charge d’affaires Steven Koutsis to protest President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban which bars its citizens from entering the United States.
“The US charge d’affaires was informed of Sudan’s discontent over the decisions issued by the American adminstration on March 6,” the foreign ministry said.
“The Sudanese under-secretary informed him that this order failed to reflect Sudan’s major cooperation in fighting terrorism.”
Koutsis is the most senior diplomat at the US embassy in Khartoum.
On Monday, Trump signed a revised ban on refugee admissions and new visas for travellers from six Muslim-majority nations — including Sudan.
Read More: President Trump’s new travel ban: key points
It came after a first ban — which had also included Iraq — was frozen by US federal courts.
Khartoum’s decision to summon Koutsis came two days after it issued an angry reaction to Trump’s new visa ban.
“Sudanese citizens have never been involved in any crimes or terrorism in the United States,” Sudan said on Tuesday as it condemned Trump’s revised ban.
On Thursday, Sudanese under-secretary Abdelghani Al-Naiem told Koutsis that Khartoum was in fact looking forward to Washington dropping Sudan from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, the ministry said.