Month: July 2017

Tillerson Shuttles to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Try to Break Impasse

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Kuwait, in an effort to help resolve the impasse over the blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors

Tillerson is also due to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week.

Tillerson met Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a visit Sunday to Ukraine. Before leaving Turkey for Kuwait, senior communications adviser R.C. Hammond said the purpose of Tillerson’s trip to several Gulf countries this week is to explore where a possible resolution can be found.

Hammond said Tillerson is traveling at the invitation of the Emir of Kuwait, and his first stop is Kuwait City. Hammond said it is not new that President Donald Trump had asked the secretary of state to find a resolution to the Qatar crisis, and that the role of the U.S. is to keep people talking to each other. 

Hammond said the president has been very clear that his No. 1 goal is to have all Arab nations do more to stop the financing of terrorism. After his first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia, Trump accused Qatar of supporting terrorism at the highest levels. Qatar has denied this.

Last month, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and others severed diplomatic ties and instituted a land, air and sea blockade of Qatar.

The Saudi-led group has given Doha a list of 13 demands, which includes calls for Qatar to downgrade its relations with Iran and close the Qatari-state-funded al-Jazeera news network. Qatar has said it is willing to negotiate, but will not give up its sovereignty.

Before leaving Turkey for Kuwait, Tillerson said he believed he and Erdogan were making progress in rebuilding trust, and stressed the importance of the U.S.-Turkish relationship.
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Higher Potential for Progress in Syria Peace Talks

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The current, seventh round of U.N.-mediated peace talks aimed at ending the long-running conflict in Syria has opened with a sense of cautious optimism that things might be moving in the right direction.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says he does not expect a breakthrough in the negotiations, but he says there is a higher potential than has been seen in the past for progress to be made in ending a war he calls the most complex conflict of our time.

He says some of the optimism comes from the fact the cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria, worked out by the United States, Russia, and Jordan, is broadly holding.

“I feel that when two superpowers, Russian Federation, which is an ally of President (Bashar al-) Assad and the United States of America agree fundamentally at that level in trying to make that cease-fire work, there is a strong chance that that will take place,” said de Mistura.

Only sporadic violence has occurred since the truce went into force at midday Sunday.  De Mistura says he believes this de-escalation of the conflict in Syria will contribute to the peace talks in Geneva and to cease-fire negotiations in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

“But, will also contribute to reassure the Syrian people that while we are talking, and it may take longer as you know, the negotiations, the people are not going to die because of bombs or any type of massive military activity,” said de Mistura.  

The United Nations reports the Syrian war, which has entered its seventh year, has killed about 400,000 people, displaced more than six million within the country and prompted nearly five million to flee as refugees to neighboring countries.   
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Trump Congratulates Iraqis on Liberation of Mosul from IS

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday congratulated Iraq, its prime minister, and security forces for liberating the city of Mosul from Islamic State. 

In a White House statement, Trump said defeating the militant group in Mosul “signals that its days in Iraq and Syria are numbered.”  He further pledged to “continue to seek the total destruction of ISIS,” using an acronym for Islamic State.

Trump said the United States grieves for the thousands of Iraqis who suffered and died at the hands of Islamic State along with the “loss of the heroic soldiers and Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) who gave their lives.”

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory on Monday in the city that the militant group had declared the capital of its caliphate in Iraq.

Speaking from Mosul’s Old City in a speech carried on state television, Abadi said the win is a victory over oppression, brutality and terrorism.

“I declare in Mosul, from Mosul, to all people the … failure and collapse of the terrorist Islamic State,” he said.

Abadi said Iraq still faces challenges, including destroying Islamic State terror cells that still exist in the country and creating stability for the entire nation.

The U.S. military welcomed Abadi’s statement, but said there are still areas of the Old City of Mosul that must be cleared of explosives and possible IS fighters in hiding.

Hours before Abadi’s speech, witnesses reported heavy fighting still under way in parts of Mosul.

The commanding U.S. general of the coalition operation in Mosul, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said, “This victory alone does not eliminate ISIS and there is still a tough fight ahead. But the loss of one of its twin capitals and a jewel of their so-called caliphate is a decisive blow.

Islamic State still controls some territory outside Mosul as well as much bigger areas in neighboring Syria.

Will it ever feel safe again?

Thousands of civilians have been killed in this battle and 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. Vast swaths of Mosul and the surrounding towns and villages have been abandoned, and many people say they never feel safe going home.

And while no part of Mosul is as thoroughly destroyed as the Old City, neither has any part left untouched by nearly three years of IS rule and almost nine months of all-out war.

In parts of East Mosul, completely recaptured by Iraqi forces in January, recovery is more promising. Shoppers crowd the streets, some of which are newly paved, mostly picking through wreckage left by airstrikes. The government has restored electricity and water supplies in much of the city.

Washington Institute for Near East Policy distinguished fellow and former ambassador James Jeffrey told VOA that relief and recovery efforts are only the first step after the recapture of Mosul.

“The second step is of course political, as always in Iraq,” Jeffrey said. “How are you going to prevent a return of ISIS or something like it, and how are you going to incorporate the Sunni Arabs into the larger Iraq and keep the Kurds who are in it but quite separate playing a positive role. Those are the big issues we have been dealing with since 2003.”

Kenneth Schwartz and Victor Beattie contributed to this report.

 
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Ukraine Begins Talks on NATO Membership Action Plan

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Ukraine is beginning discussions on a membership action plan with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday.

Speaking at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after a NATO-Ukraine Commission session in Kyiv, Poroshenko said at the moment Ukraine does not meet NATO accession criteria, but it has a three-year plan through 2020 and knows what is to be done.

The road map for Ukraine’s membership in NATO mean meeting targets on political, economic and defense reforms, with national plans submitted annually to measure progress.

 

“Ukraine has clearly defined its political future and future in the sphere of security,” Poroshenko told reporters.

Stoltenberg said NATO would continue to support Ukraine on its path to closer relations with the alliance and assist the country in pursuing reforms and meeting NATO standards.

NATO rules also say aspiring members must “settle their international disputes by peaceful means,” which means Ukraine would have to resolve the Donbass conflict with insurgent pro-Russian forces that has cost more than 10,000 lives since April 2014.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of supporting pro-Russian separatists in the country’s restive east and smuggling weapons and troops to back them up, charges that Russia denies.

“Russia has maintained its aggressive actions against Ukraine, but NATO and NATO allies stand by Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said in his opening remarks of the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting.

“NATO allies do not and will not recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea,” he also said.

Stoltenberg’s visit to Kyiv came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his first visit to the city and urged Moscow to take the “first step” to ease the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
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Libya’s Humanitarian Situation Must be Factor in Any Oil Output Talks

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Libya’s political, humanitarian and economic problems must be considered in any discussions about capping the country’s rising oil production, the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Monday.

Libya is exempt from production cuts decided by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The nation’s oil output has more than tripled over the past year as shuttered ports, pipelines and fields have reopened.

Over the past two weeks, output has increased to more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since 2013.

The NOC has previously said it can bring output to 1.2 million bpd this year.

“Libya can play a constructive role in stabilizing oil markets by informing OPEC and markets about its plans to restore production,” NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in comments emailed to Reuters.

“Accurate information will remove uncertainty and help the market understand and respond to future supply levels.

“Libya’s political, humanitarian and economic situation needs to be taken into account if we are going to talk about production caps.”

In light of disrupted production in both countries, OPEC exempted Libya and Nigeria from a campaign that began on Jan. 1 to curb output by 1.2 million bpd aimed at supporting crude prices.

But rising output from the two countries and the United States is undermining the impact OPEC and non-OPEC producers had hoped to make by removing a combined 1.8 million bpd from the market, with Brent prices down since the cuts began.

Despite the recovery in Libya’s production, output has been fluctuating due to power generation problems and leaks in pipelines that have corroded after long shutdowns.

Gains are also fragile because of Libya’s continuing political divisions, an economic crisis and conflict in parts of the vast North African country.

Armed groups have in the past shut oil facilities to demand money, including for wage payments and local development projects.

The NOC says it has not so far received the necessary budget for sustaining production or expanding it to the 1.6 million bpd that Libya was producing before the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gadhafi.

Libya is almost entirely dependent on income from oil sales.

Its economy has been contracting rapidly and its foreign reserves are depleted due to sharp drops in oil production and prices over the past four years.

Inflation and a liquidity crisis have contributed to falling living standards across the country.
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Coal-Fired Plants Top Polluters in Europe

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Coal-fired power stations are responsible for the most pollution in Europe, with Britain among the top polluters, the European Union says.

 

The European Environment Agency said in a report late Sunday that half of the plants responsible for the largest releases of air and water pollution were in Britain, with a total of 14. Germany was second with seven, followed by France and Poland, each with five.

 

The agency reviewed emissions data from 35,000 industrial plants in 2015 — the latest available data — including power stations, petrochemical refineries and metal processing units from the 28 members of the European Union, and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Serbia.

 

It said that “good progress is being made by the EU toward its climate and energy policy objectives for 2020 and 2030.” However, it noted that coal remains the most used fuel in large combustion plants — power plants, refineries, large chemical plants and steelworks — despite a decreasing amount being used over recent years, and a threefold increase in biomass use between 2004 and 2015.

 

Coal is still responsible for the largest releases of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the environment, although some plants have significantly improved their environmental performance over recent years, releasing fewer emissions into the environment.

 

The worst in 2015 were the Belchatow power plant in Poland, which released the highest amounts of the three pollutants, while the Drax power station in Britain, Jaenschwalde in Germany, and Kozienice in Poland were listed as top polluting plants for each of the three pollutants.
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With Eye on China, India, U.S. and Japan Conduct Naval Drills

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In a signal of deepening military cooperation between India, the United States and Japan, the three countries have deployed some of their largest warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean for an annual naval exercise that is conducted with an eye on China. 

The naval drills have expanded in the last two years amid growing concerns over Chinese maritime assertiveness not just in South China Sea, but also in the Indian Ocean.

The Malabar exercises are the most visible symbol of New Delhi’s strengthening security ties with the United States, which were reaffirmed last month by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump.  

Exercise expands

This year’s weeklong maneuvers on the high seas, which began Monday, involve more than 15 warships, including the US nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, India’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, and Japan’s largest warship, the JS Izumo.

The focus this year is on anti-submarine warfare.

“The exercise has “grown in scope and complexity to address the variety of threats to maritime security in the Indo-Asia Pacific,” according to a US embassy statement.

In recent months, the Indian Navy has recorded an unusual surge in the number of Chinese naval vessels in the Indian Ocean and tracked at least seven Chinese submarines entering the region since December 2013 according to military observers. They believe this could be muscle flexing by Beijing.  

“We understand that there are about 13 vessels of different kind, whether for anti-piracy or for surveillance, are currently in the Indian Ocean,” says Vijay Sakhuja, Director of the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi.  “So it certainly is like the Chinese navy is in your backyard and it is a matter of concern.”

Chinese funding and assistance for building ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka has added to Indian concerns about the forays by Chinese ships.

Beijing wary

Beijing on its part remains suspicious of the trilateral naval engagement, particularly after it expanded to include Japan since 2015, believing that it is an effort to contain its influence.  

Ahead of the Malabar exercises this year, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that while China had no objection to normal cooperation between countries, “We hope that this kind of relationship and cooperation will not be directed against third country and that it will be conducive to the regional peace and security.”

Sakhuja says the three countries are developing “a coordinated approach, to not contain, not even counter, just to be around in the Indian Ocean to just watch how the Chinese navy would be unfolding itself in the coming years.”

During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Washington last month, Trump called their security partnership “incredibly important” and both countries pledged to expand maritime security cooperation. India has also come increasingly close to Japan in the last two years – during a visit to Tokyo in May.  Indian Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said that India is looking to strengthen military cooperation with Japan.

But New Delhi turned down a request by Australia to join the trilateral exercise. 

The ships of the three nations streamed into the high seas as a tense standoff between India and China showed no signs of easing in the high Himalaya mountains.  

Soldiers from the two countries have been confronting each other since last month, when Indian soldiers obstructed a Chinese road-building project in a plateau disputed between China and Bhutan, a close ally of India. China has repeatedly called on India to withdraw its troops, but so far both sides have refused to back down.  
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Battle to Retake Raqqa a Desperate House-to-House Fight

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The battle to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from the Islamic State terror group is a fight increasingly without front lines. The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have breached the old city and control about a quarter of the terror group’s de facto capital, say American officials, but holding what has already been seized is proving a struggle.

Disputes between the SDF and some Free Syrian Army militias who have started  to participate in the battle isn’t helping the advance, but the biggest obstacle remains the determined defense of IS fighters, who are using similar urban warfare tactics seen the past nine months in the terror group’s fight to delay the retaking of Mosul by Iraqi security forces.

A month into the Raqqa assault, improvised explosive devices, sniper fire and the use of an elaborate network of tunnels to mount ambushes — as well as exploiting civilians as human shields— are all being deployed by the militants. IS militants have also been using drones to drop explosives on SDF militiamen.

A watchdog rights organization says in the assault’s first month it has documented 650 deaths — 224 of them civilians.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group that relies on a network of activists for its reporting, 311 IS fighters, including a handful of commanders, and 106 fighters of the American-backed “Euphrates Wrath” forces have died so far.

“In addition, airstrikes left hundreds of civilians injured, with various degrees of severity, some of whom had their limbs amputated, some were left with permanent disabilities and some are still in a critical condition, which means that the death toll is still likely to rise,” the observatory says.

Long battle ahead

Despite being only a tenth the size of Mosul, U.S. officials say they expect the house-to-house fighting to last several weeks. Estimates on how many militants remain in the city range from between 2,000 to 3,000. Most of them are thought to be from eastern Syria or foreign fighters drawn mainly from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

According to local activists some Raqqa-born IS fighters have defected and are providing intelligence to the SDF. Hassan Hassan, an analyst at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, a Washington-based think tank, and co-author of the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,” says local fighters have proven less than committed in the battle.

“The Islamic State will likely have to rely on the city’s still likely large population of foreign fighters as well as a new generation of young fighters brainwashed by the group’s ideology who typically fight viciously to the end,” Hassan argues in the current issue of CTC Sentinel, a publication of the West Point military academy.

Despite the participation of experienced, battle-hardened Kurdish fighters, private security advisers say the SDF doesn’t have the same capabilities and training as the elite Iraqi units who have been confronting IS militants in Mosul since August. “They are spread much thinner,” one European security adviser told VOA. “They are also not as well equipped and lack the armor the Iraqis have been able to use,” he added. Keeping the advance going, and trying to pin the militants into smaller and smaller pockets, is proving grueling, he said.

Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, to declare his security forces had wrested the wrecked city from the Islamic State, despite some continued fighting in at least one west Mosul neighborhood. Some U.S. officials are reckoning IS fighters may be able to hold out in Raqqa for up to three months.

In a bid to disrupt the SDF momentum, IS is now more regularly using suicide bombers driving reinforced vehicles packed with explosives — although not to the same degree as seen in the battle for Mosul. Last week, one suicide bomber managed to destroy a forward HQ used by the SDF.

Civilian casualties

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled, braving mines and savage IS sniper fire. Local activists estimate the number of civilians remaining in the city at about 60,000. They fault the international coalition for failing to have prepared for the handling of large numbers of displaced families. Civilians have been gathering in nearby camps lacking basic amenities such as healthcare, clean drinking water, and food,” says the activist network Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

The group has accused the attacking forces of using a scorched-earth strategy, utilizing indiscriminate aerial bombardment in order to force militants to withdrew. U.S. officials admit there have been civilian deaths but say they are doing all they can to minimize casualties among non-combatants.
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Burundi Official: 8 People Killed in Grenade Attack

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A Burundi official says eight people have been killed in a grenade attack on a bar in the country’s rural northern area.

 

Devote Ndayizeye, the administrator of Gatara commune in the province of Kayanza where the attack took place Sunday night, said two of the victims died of their wounds after being hospitalized.

 

Ndayizeye said the attackers fled the scene and their motive remains unclear.

 

Burundi has been plagued by sporadic violence since April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term led to street protests.

 

Nkurunziza won another term in disputed elections in July 2015 and remains in power, but Burundi has stayed unsettled. At least one armed group has announced a rebellion and sporadic violent attacks has sparked fears of a return to civil war.

 
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Turkey’s Erdogan: Iraq Should Avoid Independence Vote

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was increasingly important that neighboring Iraq remain a unified country and said a planned Kurdish referendum on independence should not go ahead.

Authorities in Kurdish northern Iraq have announced an independence referendum on Sept. 25, and the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government told Reuters last week there could be no turning back on the bid for an independent Kurdish state.

“The importance of Iraq’s territorial integrity is increasing by the day,” Erdogan told a petroleum  conference in Istanbul. “They should refrain from unilateral steps, such as an independence referendum”.
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EU Parliament Condemns Brexit Proposals on Citizen Rights

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The European Parliament’s group on Brexit negotiations has made a damning assessment of British proposals on EU citizens’ rights after the U.K. leaves the European Union, further indication of how tough the two-year negotiations are expected to become.

In a letter Monday to EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and seen by The Associated Press, the group said “the U.K. does not respect the principles of reciprocity, symmetry and non-discrimination.” Furthermore, it said that under the U.K. proposals made on June 26, EU citizens in Britain would be looking at “nothing less than relegation to second-class status.”

Citizens’ rights in each other’s nations are considered the first issue that both sides must settle.

Even though Barnier is leading the negotiations, the European Parliament still has a veto right on any deal.
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Syrian Cease-fire Largely Holding as UN Convenes New Peace Talks

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A Syrian war monitor said Monday a cease-fire covering three provinces in the southern part of the country was largely holding with a few reports of violence, while the Syrian government and rebels prepared to open the latest round of U.N.-brokered peace talks aimed at ending the six-year conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported scattered cease-fire violations in Daraa and Quneitra provinces.  The halt in fighting brokered by the United States, Russia and Jordan also includes Sweida province.

U.S., Russian, and Jordanian diplomats put together the cease-fire on the sidelines of last week’s G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

While neither the Syrian government nor the opposition were involved in the cease-fire talks, a Syrian official told Reuters that President Bashar Al-Assad’s government welcomes any step that could “pave the way to a peaceful solution.”

A statement from opponents of Assad noted the groups were wary about what they called “secret meetings and understandings between Russia, Jordan, and America for the south of Syria, separate from the north.”

Both opposition and Syrian representatives are taking part in the U.N. peace talks Monday in Geneva.

Previous cease-fires have fallen apart quickly, and earlier rounds of U.N.-led peace talks broke up with little progress toward a permanent truce.

However, the deputy United Nations envoy for Syria, Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi, said the new cease-fire created a “suitable atmosphere” for Monday’s meetings.

And the lead U.N. envoy, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters last week that he sees “movement” with “real engagement” and pointed to the change in dynamics from the situation that existed in the past few years when efforts to even convene peace talks got nowhere.
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Austria Bars Turkish Minister From Entering the Country for a Rally

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Austria has barred the Turkish economy minister from entering the country to attend a rally marking the anniversary of the failed coup attempt in Turkey last year

A spokesman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry confirmed in statement Monday the decision of Foreign Minster Sebastian Kurz, saying the event was “very big” and that the public appearance of Turkey’s Nihat Zeybekci could “danger public order and security in Austria”.

Austria has strongly criticized Turkey’s security crackdown that followed the failed coup, and has repeatedly called for suspending Turkey’s EU accession talks.

The Austrian decision followed a Netherlands government statement that Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes was not welcome in the country. Turkes had intended to participate in a Friday ceremony organized by Turkish community to commemorate the anniversary of the coup attempt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also was not allowed to speak to Turks in Germany last week, where he attended the G20 leaders’ summit in Hamburg.

More than 50,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, pending trial, and about 150,000 suspended or dismissed following the July 15 coup attempt, over allegations of connections with the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the coup.
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Fire Erupts in Part of Popular Camden Lock Market in London

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Dozens of firefighters poured water onto a big fire early Monday at Camden Lock Market, which is a popular tourist destination in north London.

The London Fire Brigade said 10 firetrucks and 70 firefighters had been sent to the site shortly after midnight Sunday when a blaze erupted near Camden Stables. It said three floors and the roof of a building within the complex were on fire.

Ambulance crews also rushed to the scene, but authorities said no injuries had been reported.

The market is very popular with tourists and Londoners, who are drawn to the area by the shopping and nightlife on offer.

“The fire was moving very fast,” said witness Joan Ribes. “People were watching, but we were scared the building could explode at any time since there are restaurants with kitchens nearby.”

A different part of the market complex was ravaged by a fire in 2008, and vendors were not able to operate for several months.

Monday’s fire came less than four weeks after a fast-spreading blaze engulfed the Grenfell Tower apartment block in west London, killing at least 80 people.
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Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airlines Say US Laptop Ban Lifted

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Royal Jordanian and Kuwait Airways each said Sunday their passengers can once again bring laptop computers and other personal electronics on-board direct flights to the United States.

The U.S. imposed the ban in March for flights from 10 airports in the Middle East, saying it feared terrorists could hide bombs inside the devices.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told the affected airlines they need to enhance security screenings for passengers, including putting in place sophisticated X-Ray and ultrasounds scans for devices people want to bring on board their flights.

A Royal Jordanian statement Sunday said the airline has now met the requirements and the ban has been lifted for its flights from Amman.

Kuwait Airlines said its passengers could carry on electronics for flights from Kuwait International Airport.

Last week, Doha-based Qatar Airways, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, Dubai-based Emirates and Istanbul-based Turkish Airlines also said they have met the new requirements.

The ban still applies to non-stop U.S.-bound flights from airports in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
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Tillerson Praises Turkey, Rebukes Russia During Foreign Trip

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised the Turkish people for resisting last year’s attempted coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, without mentioning the government’s crackdown on suspected plotters. Tillerson visited Ukraine and Turkey after attending G-20 summit in Germany. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer for Clinton Information

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The eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer shortly after his father clinched the Republican nomination, hoping to get information helpful to the campaign.

Donald Trump Jr. confirmed in a statement that he met with a Russian lawyer who had ties to the Kremlin, and that he agreed to the meeting in June 2016 after being told she had information that could damage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

During the meeting with the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, “no details or supporting information was provided or even offered,” Trump Jr. said. “It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”  

Trump’s son said his father was unaware of the meeting.

The White House sought to downplay the contact between Donald Trump Jr. and the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, following a report by The New York Times Saturday that first disclosed the meeting. Also present on that occasion in Trump Tower, the president’s headquarters in New York City, were Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and future senior White House adviser, and Paul Manafort, then the chairman of the Trump political campaign.

When the president’s son was first asked about his talks with Veselnitskaya, The Times said, he did not mention anything about political information that reputedly could damage Hillary Clinton. On Sunday, however, he revised his statement to confirm it was expected that the Russian attorney would provide damaging information.

“While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and the Russians, the episode at Trump Tower is the first such confirmed private meeting involving his inner circle during the campaign,” The New York Times said, “as well as the first one known to have included his eldest son.”

The newspaper said its information came from “three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

Veselnitskaya is known for her attempts to undercut the sanctions against Russian human-rights abusers, U.S. media reports said. Her clients reportedly include state-owned businesses and the son of a senior government official whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting.

A special prosecutor, appointed by the Department for Justice, and several congressional committees are currently conducting separate investigations into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin over alleged Russian hacking attempting to influence the result of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly denied having links to Russia, while Moscow says it was not behind any hacks.
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Peace at Risk in Nigeria’s Oil Heartlands as Locals’ Patience Wears Thin

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The Nigerian government’s efforts to secure peace in the oil heartlands of the Niger Delta are empty promises, community leaders say, threatening a return to violence that would derail any broader recovery in the crude-dependent economy.

With Africa’s biggest economy mired in recession, delegations including Acting President Yemi Osinbajo have held talks since February with community leaders in the restive oil-producing states in Nigeria’s southeast.

Oil exports are now set to exceed 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, the highest in 17 months, from as little as just over 1 million bpd at certain points last year. That is due to a steady decline in attacks on pipelines, providing a much-needed injection of cash into Nigerian government coffers.

But ex-militants and local chieftains say that since those “town hall” discussions, little has been done – the government has not followed up on issues raised, is stalling on key demands and has not even appointed a full-time negotiating team.

If the Niger Delta people continue to feel Abuja is ignoring their needs, leaders say they will resort to the only tactic that has ever yielded results: attacks on oil facilities.

“The people of the Niger Delta can hold this government or any government to ransom because we are the people feeding the nation,” said Godspower Gbenekama, a chief in the Kingdom of Gbaramatu.

“This peace is a graveyard peace,” he said. “Nobody can assure anybody that nothing will happen in the Delta.”

A spokesman for the acting president rejected suggestions the government was not doing enough.

“The government has not reneged and will never renege on any agreement,” he said, pointing to more spending on an amnesty program for ex-militants and progress on a clean-up project.

He added it was just a matter of time for other agreements to come to fruition, such as the planned opening of a flagship university in October and of small-scale refineries with community ownership in the fourth quarter.

An inter-ministerial group met regularly with Osinbajo to discuss the Niger Delta and a “technical committee” liaised between the government and affected communities, he also said.

Some locals, however, are in no mood to wait. In a sign of their mounting frustration, groups such as the New Delta Avengers and the Niger Delta Marine Force have formed in recent months.

“Call for resuming attacks when the government is diligent in actualising the terms of the agreements and requests made will not help matters,” said the acting president’s spokesman.

‘All about revenue’

That the Delta needs help is not in dispute.

Roads are pitted and scarred. Holes gape in the walls of school buildings and playing fields are flooded. Ramshackle stalls crowd the streets, standing in pools of muddy water and blocking traffic.

Every 10 meters are signs offering hope of a different nature: Communion with God; Redemption Ministries; Hope Center Parish; Success Education Centre; High Flyers House of Bliss Ministries.

But the communities of the Niger Delta also have more earthly demands.

Some want environmental clean-ups from oil spills that have devastated swaths of forest and waterways; others want roads and better power supply; others jobs and the regional university.

Many in the Delta are cynical about the government’s stated desire to improve the region’s lot.

The peace talks are “lies and deceit,” said Annkio Briggs, a leading activist in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt. “This latest Osinbajo move … is all about revenue. How do we get the Niger Delta calm enough that we can continue to derive revenue to sustain our budgets?”

Others are also bitter that the government only appears to respond to violent action, while peaceful activism and protests have historically achieved little.

The government “is treading on a path that is disastrous… setting a precedent that they will only negotiate with the Delta when they start blowing stuff up,” said Richard Akinaka, who represented the youth in Rivers state for a meeting with Osinbajo.

He dismissed the meeting with one word – “bogus.”

The communities have also asked for ownership of oil blocks, and for all states in Nigeria to become fiscally independent – a move that would see oil revenues pooled in the southeast.

The problems of the Delta may not be easily solved: enmity runs deep between locals and the federal government, violence is often the answer and some of the demands may not be as attainable as community leaders hope.

“We don’t have a very big agenda,” said Gbenekama, the Gbaramatu kingdom chief. “The general agenda of the Niger Delta people is the political and fiscal restructuring of this nation.”
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Congo Election Head: Presidential Vote Unlikely This Year

Posted on by SeeAF

The president of Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission said on Sunday that a vote to replace President Joseph Kabila will probably not be possible this year, violating a deal that let Kabila stay on past the end of his mandate.

Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his second elected term in December sparked protests that killed dozens of people. The opposition quickly denounced commission president Corneille Nangaa’s announcement on Sunday as a declaration of “war.”

“The parameters at our disposal give us, more or less, reason to think that, in December, it will probably not be possible to stick to that date,” Nangaa said in an interview on France’s TV5Monde, referring to the year-end deadline.

Under the accord struck on Dec. 31 between Kabila’s representatives and opposition leaders, Kabila, in power since 2001, is also barred from trying to change the constitution to stand for a third term.

However, Kabila has said only the electoral commission can schedule the vote once it finishes enrolling millions of voters.

In an interview last month with German newspaper Der Spiegel, he also said that he had “promised nothing” in the December deal.

In response to Nangaa’s comments, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi wrote on Twitter that the commission president “had declared war on the Congolese people” and promised a full response by the country’s main opposition bloc on Monday.
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Trump’s G20 Performance Gets Mixed Reviews

Posted on by SeeUS

Hours after returning from his second presidential foray abroad, Donald Trump and his representatives were out in force Sunday, calling the trip an “outstanding success.” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, told a television interviewer on “Fox News Sunday” the president was “a star” at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Trump led the charge, firing off a series of Twitter posts highlighting several accomplishments, including a cease-fire in Syria that “will save lives,” and noting that he held firm on sanctions against Russia during his talks with President Vladimir Putin.

“Sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with President Putin,” he wrote. “Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!”

Earlier, Trump posted a statement from former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who said the president’s speech in Poland was “one for the ages,” and added: “Americans should be proud of the strong leadership being restored.”

Trump: ‘I strongly pressed Putin’

In two other Sunday tweets, Trump pushed back at critics who say he was not tough enough in confronting Putin on Russia’s election interference:  

“I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it.”

“Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.”

Opposition Democrats ridiculed the idea of working with Russia to prevent election meddling. In a TV appearance (CNN’s “State of the Union”), Congressman Adam Schiff, the senior Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said a cybersecurity partnership with Moscow would be “dangerously naïve.”

“If that’s our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow,” Schiff said.

Skeptics in Trump’s own party

Several senators from Trump’s own Republican Party also dismissed the concept of a Moscow-Washington cybersecurity partnership. Senator Lindsey Graham on NBC’s “Meet the Press” said it was “not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close.”

By the end of the day on Sunday, Trump had backtracked on his push for the cybersecurity unit, tweeting that he did not think it could happen.

“The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t,” Trump said on Twitter. He then noted that an agreement with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria “can & did” happen.

Overseas reaction to Trump’s performance in Europe was mixed, but much of it was scathing. Australian journalist Chris Ullman, in commentary broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said Trump had managed to “isolate his nation, confuse and alienate his allies and to diminish America.” Uhlmann said Trump had demonstrated “no desire and no capacity to lead the world.”

Other Trump critics on both sides of the Atlantic have voiced similar concerns, questioning whether actions such as pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord have damaged America’s reputation as the leader of the free world.

Joshua Walker, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States who was in Germany during last week’s summit, told VOA he sees in Trump worrying signs that could portend a decline in America’s standing.

US losing free-world leadership?

Walker argued one individual leader cannot erase 70 years of post-World War Two history. “It’s too early to say America is no longer the leader of the free world, because there’s no alternative,” he said, but also noted the rise of China, the skilled diplomacy of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in reaching agreement among G20 leaders and the just completed Japan-EU trade deal all suggest a new era is dawning.

“The fact that [the G20 was] able to reach a deal in an age in which the United States may not be able to dictate its own economic edicts anymore tells you that there’s something going on in the international environment,” Walker said. “And while the United States continues to be the leader of the free world. It’s not taken for granted at this point. Other countries, such as Japan and Germany, are showing leadership on the international stage.”

Daniel Hamilton, a professor at the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, said Merkel, not Trump, was the star of the summit, winning international plaudits for insisting on a joint communiqué despite U.S. refusal to join the other 19 members in calling climate change “irreversible.”

“Unfortunately – and I deplore this – the United States of America left the climate agreement, or rather announced their intention of doing this,” Merkel said in a clear rebuke to Trump as she closed the summit.

“She hit it out of the park, and showed she could bring people together,” Hamilton told VOA.  

Praise for Warsaw speech

Other observers say Trump’s biggest success on this trip may not have been at the summit, but in a widely hailed speech he delivered in Poland a day earlier.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, called the Warsaw speech “a significant defense of sovereignty and Western civilization.”

“These are big themes for some of the emerging powers in Europe; Poland and Hungary, for instance,” Gardiner said. “Trump had a message a lot of Europeans support, but that has been buried within the European Union. This speech is a game-changer, and there will be lot of attention paid to that for years to come.”

 

 
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Kenya President, Chief Justice Clash as Elections Approach

Posted on by SeeAF

Kenya’s chief justice warned President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday not to undermine public confidence in the judiciary, in an unusually sharp exchange between the two men less than a month before national elections are due.

Kenyatta had earlier responded to a court victory for the opposition against Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by cautioning against any use of the court process to delay the elections.

“They are taking us for fools,” he told an election rally in the western county of Baringo, referring to the judiciary.

“I want to tell those in courts, we have respected you. But do not think respect is cowardice. And we will not allow our opponents to use the courts and to intimidate the IEBC, thinking they will win using the back door.”

Chief Justice David Maraga released a statement a few hours later, saying: “When political leaders cast aspersions on the administration of justice based on a misinterpretation of my statements, it has the potential to impair public confidence in our courts, and this concerns me a great deal.”

Memories are still fresh in Kenya of the violent clashes that killed more than 1,200 people following a disputed election in 2007. Some fear a repeat following the Aug. 8 polls in which Kenyatta is seeking a second and final five-year term.

Kenyans are also due to choose legislators and local representatives for the first time since 2013, when the elections passed peacefully after the opposition challenged the results in court.

The opposition has already brought a flurry of cases against the electoral commission, including the one settled on Friday when the high court ruled that contract to print ballot papers for the presidential poll had not been awarded transparently.

Kenyatta’s chief rival is veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, the head of the National Super Alliance, who was also the opposition candidate in both 2007 and 2013.

A spokesman for Odinga said he had been hospitalized on Sunday with a suspected case of mild food poisoning.

 
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White House Pushing for Health Care Overhaul, but Opposition Grows

Posted on by SeeUS

The White House is making a final push to overhaul the U.S. health care law championed by former President Barack Obama, but opposition to the changes Senate Republicans are proposing has grown in recent days, leaving the repeal effort in doubt.

One key lawmaker, Senator John McCain, told CBS on Sunday, “My view is that it’s probably going to be dead.”

Republicans have campaigned for seven years to overturn the 2010 law, commonly known in the U.S. as Obamacare.  But even with Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, the party’s lawmakers have so far been unable to agree on how to change it, with some conservative senators calling for repealing major parts of the law and more moderate Republicans looking to keep popular provisions.

The House of Representatives narrowly approved repeal of the legislation in May.  President Donald Trump initially cheered the passage of that bill at a White House rally, but since has called it “mean” and lobbied the Senate to approve an overhaul with “heart.”  Key Trump administration officials have been lobbying lawmakers who have been holding out against the repeal.

Republicans have a 52-48 majority in the Senate, giving them little room for dissenters to oppose the repeal, since all Democrats say they will vote against the overhaul.  If the vote on it ends in a 50-50 tie, Vice President Mike Pence is set to cast the deciding vote in favor of the repeal.

But several Republican lawmakers have voiced doubts about their party’s proposals, with some worried it could cut health care insurance for millions of people, especially narrowing coverage under the government’s health care program for poorer Americans.

One independent assessment of the Senate plan, by the Congressional Budget Office, said 22 million people would lose insurance to help pay their medical bills during the next decade, compared to coverage under Obamacare.  The CBO is assessing several other Republican proposals to determine how they might affect the number of people covered and how much they would have to pay for insurance in the coming years.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that if his party is unable to pass repeal legislation, then Republicans would have to join Democrats in revamping Obamacare to shore up faltering insurance coverage in some states, a bipartisan effort they so far have been unwilling to undertake.

No vote on the Republican repeal effort is expected this week, but could occur the following week as Congress moves toward its annual month-long vacation during August.
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US to Increase Pressure on China to Enforce Sanctions Against North Korea

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States will step up pressure on China to ensure that it enforces sanctions against North Korea in the wake of Pyongyang’s recent missile launch, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday.

Haley said that while the United States wants to avoid conflict, it is committed to halting North Korea’s nuclear drive.

“The fact that they launched an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) test is hugely dangerous not just for us, but for so many of our friends in the world, and we’ve got to put a stop to it,” Haley told CBS television.

“So we’re going to fight hard on this. We’re going to push hard not just on North Korea, we’re going to push hard on other countries who are not abiding by the resolutions and not abiding by the sanctions against North Korea. And we’re going to push hard against China because 90 percent of the trade that happens with North Korea is from China, and so while they have been helpful, they need to do more,” she added.

China is North Korea’s biggest ally and trading partner. So far, China has expressed its condemnation of the recent launch along with other countries, calling it a “flagrant violation” of United Nations resolutions. China has not, however, said anything definitive regarding sanctions.

At an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea Wednesday, Haley said a new draft resolution would be circulated among council members “in the coming days.”

Last week, North Korea launched its first known intercontinental ballistic missile, complete with a re-entry vehicle that would allow it to be equipped with a nuclear warhead. U.S. military officials estimate the missile had a range of 5,500 kilometers, potentially putting parts of the northwestern United States within Pyongyang’s reach.

 
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Massive Istanbul Crowd Protests Erdogan’s Crackdown on Rights

Posted on by SeeEU

Tens of thousands of people massed in Istanbul Sunday to protest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on critics of his government in the wake of last year’s failed military coup.

The demonstrators chanted “Rights, Law, Justice” in support of the main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who was completing a 450-kilometer walk from the capital Ankara after a lawmaker from his party was imprisoned in June.

It was the biggest protest in several years against Erdogan, whose government has arrested more than 50,000 people and dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he has characterized as supporters of the aborted coup. Turkey claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades. Gulen denies any involvement.

The 68-year-old Kilicdaroglu’s 25-day march at first drew modest support, about 1,000 people who walked alongside him. But the crowds swelled in recent days as he neared Istanbul.

Kilicdaroglu, the head of the secularist Republican People’s Party, said that his march “cast off a shirt of fear” of Erdogan’s rule. “If only there was no need for this march and there was democracy, media freedoms, if civic society groups could freely express their opinions.”

Erdogan criticized Kilicdaroglu when he embarked on the march, saying justice should be sought in parliament, not on the streets.

The Turkish opposition says that Erdogan’s government has been moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown on rights is necessary to thwart security threats to the ruling government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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