Thaw in US Relations with Sudan?

The Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS) published on 5 November 2015 a commentary titled "Khartoum Shuffles in from the Western Cold" by Peter Fabricius, ISS consultant. 

The author reports a couple of small policy changes by the United States aimed at improving relations with Khartoum and suggests they may portend a more normal relationship with Sudan.  While these steps have angered human rights advocacy groups, they fall far short of putting Washington on a path of normalizing relations with Khartoum.