Washington lifted 2021 Eritrea sanctions citing Red Sea interests
Al Jazeera, citing AFP, AP and Reuters, writes that the State Department said President Donald Trump chose not to renew the 2021 Eritrea measure to advance US regional interests on the Red Sea. A Reuters dispatch carried on Devdiscourse says Treasury's website showed the lift on Friday against the Eritrean Defense Forces and other entities, and quotes information minister Yemane Gebremeskel welcoming the step.
Geopolitics··Evening
Treasury posted the lift on Friday; State tied it to the Red Sea
Al Jazeera writes that the United States lifted sanctions on Eritrea and that the State Department said Trump had chosen not to renew the 2021 measure targeting the country on the strategic Red Sea, to advance US regional interests. Reuters, via Devdiscourse, dates the same Friday lift to a notice on the Treasury website covering the Eritrean Defense Forces and other entities, and notes analysts have said the step could boost US ties given Eritrea's location on the Red Sea shipping route opposite Saudi Arabia.[1], [2]
The 2021 Biden package named the ruling party and the military
Al Jazeera writes that the Biden administration imposed the sanctions in November 2021 on Eritrean forces and President Isaias Afwerki's People's Front for Democracy and Justice, after Eritrean troops were accused of atrocities in Ethiopia's Tigray war, which ended in late 2022. Reuters repeats that Biden sanctioned the ruling party, the military and senior officials in 2021 for that Tigray role, and notes it had previously reported the Trump administration was planning the removal, citing an internal government document.[1], [2]
Asmara welcomed a lift it called an unwarranted Biden measure
Reuters quotes Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea's information minister, saying the unilateral sanctions imposed by the Biden administration five years ago were not warranted by any metrics, and that Asmara welcomed the Trump administration's gesture and remedial measures. Al Jazeera places the same Red Sea geography against the US-Israel war on Iran and notes shipping through Bab al-Mandeb is under pressure from Houthi advances in Yemen. The two accounts share the Friday lift and the 2021 Tigray origin; Reuters carries the minister's words, Al Jazeera the shipping-route frame.[2], [1]
