July 3, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Embassy of the United States of America in Khartoum will resume in the coming months the visa issuance for Sudanese after more than a decade.

Holders of Sudanese passports have to file their visa application to the US consular service in Cairo, Egypt. Also an American consular officer visits the US embassy in Khartoum about once per month to deliver visa for Sudanese officials or other special cases.

Washington closed the consular service at the US embassy in Sudan in1998 after the bombing of Ashifa pharmaceutical plant which the United States claimed was helping Ussama bin laden after attacks against its diplomatic missions in Kenya and Tanzania.

"I am also pleased to announce that for the first time in more than a decade, our new Embassy will once again be able to provide Sudanese citizens with full visa and other consular services here in Khartoum," said the US Chargé d’Affaires Robert Whitehead in a speech delivered the 233rd celebration of the Declaration of America’s Independence in Khartoum on July 2.

Whitehead said the new embassy in Soba suburb would open later this year without further details.

The chargé d’affaires, who said the US administration plans to increase educational and cultural programs, noted that the FY 2008 budget for humanitarian and development funding to Sudan reached 931 million US dollars.

He also mentioned Obama speech in Cairo about "the need for the cycle of suspicion and discord between the United States and the Muslim world to end."

Whitehead asserted that his government would continue to seek a political solution to the six-year old conflict in Darfur and reaffirmed its support for Darfur joint mediator and the Doha peace process.

He underscored the US support to the CPA implementation and the recent Washington meeting in this regards. Further, he said Washington pledged during this meeting to back the work of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission as well as other internal commissions and mechanisms created within the CPA.

(ST)