Iran’s top diplomat on Saturday dismissed the possibility of war erupting in the region, saying Tehran did not want a conflict and that no country had the “illusion it can confront Iran,” the state news agency IRNA reported.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased in recent days, raising concerns about a potential U.S.-Iran conflict. Earlier this week the United States pulled some diplomatic staff from its Baghdad embassy following attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf.

“There will be no war because neither do we want a war, nor has anyone the idea or illusion it can confront Iran in the region,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told IRNA before

ending a visit to Beijing.

President Donald Trump has bolstered economic sanctions and built up U.S. military presence in the region, accusing Iran of threats to U.S. troops and interests. Tehran has described those

steps as “psychological warfare” and a “political game.”

“The fact is that Trump has officially said and reiterated again that he does not want a war, but people around him are pushing for war on the pretext that they want to make America

stronger against Iran,” Zarif said.

He told Reuters last month that Trump could be lured into a conflict by the likes of U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, an ardent Iran hawk.

Regional tensions

In a sign of the heightened tension across the region, ExxonMobil evacuated foreign staff from an oilfield in neighboring Iraq after days of saber rattling between Washington and Tehran.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Bahrain warned its citizens against traveling to Iraq or Iran due to “unstable conditions.” In Washington, officials urged U.S. commercial airliners flying over the waters of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to exercise caution.

A Norwegian insurers’ report seen by Reuters said Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards were “highly likely” to have facilitated the attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

In Tehran, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards named a new head of the force’s intelligence unit on Saturday, the Fars news agency reported.

Iranian officials have denied involvement in the tanker attacks, saying Tehran’s enemies carried them out to lay the groundwork for war against Iran.

U.S. officials, however, are concerned that Tehran may have passed naval combat expertise onto proxy forces in the region. Following the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, a senior

Iranian maritime official said Iran had adopted new tactics and new destinations in shipping its oil exports.

Iranian crude oil exports have fallen in May to 500,000 barrels per day or lower, according to tanker data and industry sources, after the United States tightened the screws on Iran’s

main source of income.

 
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Government auditors say Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson violated the law when his department spent more than $40,000 to purchase a dining set and a dishwasher for his office’s executive dining room

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson violated the law when his department spent more than $40,000 to purchase a dining set and a dishwasher for his office’s executive dining room, government auditors concluded.

In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said HUD failed to notify Congress before exceeding a $5,000 limit set by Congress to furnish or make improvements to the office of a presidential appointee. The dining set cost more than $31,000 and the dishwasher cost nearly $9,000.

Carson told lawmakers last year that he was unaware of the purchase and canceled it as soon as he learned about it in news reports. He also told a House Appropriations subcommittee that he left furniture purchasing decisions to his wife. But emails released by watchdog group American Oversight suggested that Carson and his wife, Candy Carson, both played a role in choosing the furniture.

The GAO said HUD did not break the law when it paid more than $4,000 for new blinds for Carson’s office suite.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees HUD, said that while the amount of money may be small, it’s a “willful disregard for the appropriate use” of taxpayer dollars.

“There needs to be more accountability at HUD and stronger oversight of the Trump Administration or else this pattern of unlawful behavior will continue, and I worry it won’t just be a small amount of money the next time,” Reed said in a statement.

HUD Chief Financial Officer Irv Dennis said the department has been working to improve its financial controls.

“Our job is to make sure systems are in place to protect every taxpayer dollar we spend and to restore sound financial management and stability to the way we do business,” Dennis said in a statement.
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Florida’s governor plans to fight a federal plan to fly hundreds of immigrants from the Mexican border to two South Florida counties, saying Friday that he would take his case to President Donald Trump. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis made his remarks a day after being caught off guard when Broward and Palm Beach county officials said they were notified by the U.S. Border Patrol that about 1,000 migrants per month would be sent to the two counties starting in about two weeks. 

“We cannot accommodate in Florida just dumping unlawful migrants into our state. I think it will tax our resources, the schools, the health care, law enforcement, state agencies,” DeSantis told reporters in Sarasota after a bill signing ceremony.

DeSantis wasn’t aware of the plans until county officials reported the information to the media. He said he was on the phone with the White House on Thursday. 

“This was not something that came down from the White House. This was something that came out of the agency. Sometimes this stuff happens. It’s going to ultimately be something I’m going to have to talk to the president about,” DeSantis said. 

Personal ties

Trump and DeSantis have a close relationship. Trump’s endorsement propelled DeSantis from underdog status to winner in last year’s governor’s race, and DeSantis has met with him several times in the White House, securing promises to increase hurricane aid and federal money for Everglades restoration. 

DeSantis also noted that he recently signed a bill banning sanctuary cities and appeared upset that the plan to send immigrants to Florida came after the pledge to help federal immigration authorities. 

We're going to work with them to help them remove criminal aliens. We're not going to be like some of these other states that are not allowing federal authorities to come into a jail or a courthouse,'' he said.We’ve been very cooperative.”  

The federal government has run out of space to process the thousands of migrants who have been arriving at the Texas border, forcing them to fly migrants to Border Patrol facilities in other locations for processing. Once processed, they are released and given a court date in a city where they plan to reside, often with family members. That could be anywhere in the U.S., including going to the Latino communities of South Florida.

For migrants arriving in Broward and Palm Beach, some may ultimately intend to go to cities outside South Florida or even out of state. 

In any case, South Florida authorities are bracing for an influx.

The Palm Beach County Association of Chiefs of Police wrote a letter to the governor Thursday saying the migrant flight plans were an unfunded mandate'' that would have adirect effect on the potential homeless numbers and present challenges to our school district.”

Sharing aid effort

Tim Gamwell is the assistant executive director of the Guatemalan-Maya Center, an organization that serves nearly 1,000 migrants from over 20 countries a month. He said it is important that Palm Beach County authorities and institutions play an active role in aiding any migrants who end up there. 

“If this burden is not shared, if it’s placed on small nonprofits and neighborhoods, there is no way that families are going to receive the services that they need without widespread community support,” Gamwell said.

Gamwell said his organization already acts as a community service hub for migrants in Palm Beach County. It hosts food bank events and legal screening clinics and provides free and low-cost early childhood education programs for families, he said. 
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Russia on Thursday presented a draft resolution to the Security Council accusing the UN’s chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, of politicization just before a new probe begins of chemical attacks in Syria.

The draft text, seen by AFP, states that the Council — where Russia holds veto power — is the only international body that can impose measures on countries that violate the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agreed last year to set up a mechanism that would identify the perpetrators of chemical attacks, a move bitterly opposed by Russia and Syria.

Russian proposal

The proposed resolution notes “with concern the continuing politicization of the work of the OPCW and growing deviation from the established practice of taking consensus-based decisions.”

UN diplomats said the Russian proposal was aimed at keeping the OPCW in check as it pushes ahead with the investigation to uncover those behind chemical weapons use in Syria.

“What it’s really about of course is the Russians trying to strangle OPCW,” said a diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The West pushed through the new blaming powers after OPCW reports confirmed chemical weapons use in Syria, as well as a nerve agent attack on Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury in March 2018.

“The Russian rationale is to weaken the OPCW and the Chemical Weapons Convention, with an eye on Syria but also Salisbury,” said another diplomat.

Time frame for resolution

It remained unclear when the draft resolution would be put to a vote. UN resolutions require nine votes and no vetoes to be adopted in the council.

The proposed resolution is backed by China, diplomats said.

“This looks like a desperate bid to prevent further confirmation that the Syrian government, like ISIS, repeatedly used chemical weapons in violation of international law,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch.

The Russian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

OPCW chief Fernando Arias said in March that the new investigation of chemical attacks in Syria would begin in the coming weeks.

Western countries are calling on the team to start work on identifying the culprits behind a deadly attack in the Syrian town of Douma in April 2018.

Missile strike

The United States, Britain and France launched a one-off missile strike on Syria in April last year in response to the use of chemical weapons in Douma. 

The OPCW said in a report that chlorine was likely used in that attack, which killed more than 40 people, but Russia and Syria have rejected those findings. 

Douma attack

The report did not specify who was behind the Douma attack as it was not in the OPCW’s mandate at the time.

In 2015, the council unanimously agreed to establish the OPCW-UN joint investigative mechanism (JIM) to identify those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.

But in late 2017, Russia vetoed a bid to renew the mandate of the JIM after the panel blamed the Syrian government for chlorine attacks and for using sarin in a deadly assault on the town of Khan Sheikhun that same year.

Russia has used its veto 12 times at the council to shield its Syrian ally from international action. 
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