The United States has removed Sudan’s state sponsor of terrorism designation, its embassy in capital Khartoum announced, AFP reported.

“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 is effective as of today (December 14), to be published in the Federal Register,” the US embassy said.

US President Donald Trump had announced in October that he was delisting Sudan, 27 years after Washington first put the country on its blacklist for harbouring Islamist militants.

Trump sent his notice to remove Sudan from the terror blacklist to Congress on October 26 and, under US law, a country exits the list after 45 days unless Congress objects, which it has not.

The African nation had pledged to normalise ties with Israel. But unlike the UAE and Bahrain, Sudan has yet to agree a formal deal with Israel.

In late November, a spokesman for Sudan’s Sovereign Council — the country’s highest executive authority, comprised of military and civilian figures — confirmed that an Israeli delegation had visited Khartoum earlier in the month.

Seeking to downplay the visit, council spokesman Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman had said “we did not announce it at the time because it was not a major visit or of a political nature”.