President
Trump's national security adviser, John R. Bolton, who is often
described as a war hawk and known for his support of the 2003
invasion of Iraq and his advocacy of the bombing of North Korea, Iran
and Syria, seems to have given up on his "Assad must go"
rhetoric, at least temporarily.
Speaking
to CBS News on Sunday about the prospects for the upcoming
Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki on July 16, Bolton suggested that
Syria was one area where Russia and the US "might make progress
together."
"We'll
see what happens when the two of them get together. There are
possibilities for doing a larger negotiation on helping to get
Iranian forces out of Syria and back into Iran, which would be a
significant step forward – to have an agreement with Russia if
that's possible," Bolton said.
"This
has been something that's been going on now for nearly seven years,
this conflict in Syria," Bolton noted, adding that his concern
was the "Iranian presence now across Iraq and Syria really
reaching into Lebanon."
Asked
whether he agreed with the assessment that Syrian President Bashar
Assad had effectively "won the war" against Syria, Bolton
deflected.
"Well
I don't think Assad is the strategic issue. I think Iran is the
strategic issue," he said, listing off a string of accusations
against Tehran including their alleged "conventional forces in
the Middle East."
For
their part, Tehran and Damascus have denied all claims about Iranian
forces in Syria, pointing out that Iran is present in Syria only in
an advisory capacity in the country's fight against Islamist
extremism.
John
Bolton has been a keen proponent of military intervention against
Syria going back to the Bush administration. Earlier this year, in
the run-up to the Western missile strikes against Syria in April, the
national security advisor reportedly advocated a considerably more
significant intervention, promoting strikes which would be "ruinous"
to Damascus's military capabilities. Bolton was overruled by Defense
Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph
Dunford, who had opted for more limited strikes, which proved a
failure.
The
Trump administration is softening its earlier demand that countries
like China, India and Turkey end all imports of Iranian oil by Nov.
4, as a top State Department official on Monday said the United
States would allow reduced oil flows, in certain cases.
“We
are prepared to work with countries that are reducing their imports
on a case-by-case basis,” said Brian Hook, the department’s
director of policy and planning.
His
announcement was a delicate attempt at reassuring oil markets and
allies that sanctions are not likely to hit them this fall — even
if Iranian oil continues to flow around the world, as is likely the
case.
India,
South Korea and Turkey — all allies or friends of the United States
— are major importers of oil from Iran and are unlikely to be able
to switch suppliers entirely by November.
That
reality was not acknowledged last week when a different senior State
Department official told reporters that the United States expected
global imports of Iranian oil to go to zero by Nov. 4, when
Washington will reimpose sanctions against Tehran’s energy sector.
The announcement sent oil prices soaring and markets have been on
edge ever since.
That
official had briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to predict
that it was unlikely — but not impossible — that some importers
would be given waivers to protect them from penalties after buying
Iranian oil. On Monday, Mr. Hook said, “Our policy is to get to
zero as soon as possible” — a subtle shift that is likely to
reassure markets.
She
has conceded much and nearly lost her handle on power
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel has found her Chancellorship and governing
coalition in clear and present danger via a dispute over migration
with her Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, who is also the leader of
the conservative Christian Social Union party.
Seehofer
has threatened to turn away migrants at Germany’s border, a move
which runs contrary to Merkel’s policy on migration, which has
admitted more than a million asylum seekers and economic migrants
since 2015. Seehofer’s move in that direction threatened to split
Merkel’s governing coalition by losing the support of her party and
having to nominate a new Interior Minister to replace Seehofer
following his termination from the role.
Merkel,
in a bid to save her position and retain coalition support, went
about a series of meetings and negotiations with European leaders at
a break neck pace in order to establish a ‘European response’ to
the migrant crisis facing Europe, realizing that a unilateral
approach would not meaningfully address the issue.
An
informal meeting was held last week with failed to establish the
desired result, but an agreement which came out of a Union wide
summit in Brussels managed to get some agreement on ways to address
some political concerns as well as the issue of taking in more
migrants, which has been a hot button issue both politically and
economically across the bloc.
But
that agreement was not enough for Seehofer, who went to tender a
provisional resignation from his post as Germany’s Interior
Minister, leading right back to a situation that would rock Merkel’s
government to its foundations, quite literally. Ergo, to solve the
crisis, Merkel held a meeting with Seehofer this afternoon in order
to accomplish a sort of compromise on the migration matter, and to
preserve Seehofer, and, by extension, the party of which he is
chairman, and which represents a substantial portion of Merkel’s
governing coalition, in his position which was threatened by the
dispute between Seehofer and Merkel.
An
agreement was reached which would provide for transit centers to vet
the claims for asylum offered by incoming migrants, the refusal to
accept secondary migrants, and the potential deportation of those who
have originally filed for asylum in some other European country.
Multiple
Russian and Middle East news sources are reporting new
accusations by the Iranian military that
that a
US ship carrying chemical weapons has recently anchored in the
Persian Gulf and in engaged in a "dangerous plot",
though not naming the particular "Gulf state" territorial
waters at which the ship docked.
The
accusation comes just as a major seven week US military
exercise, Operation
Nautical Horizon,
has concluded in the Persian Gulf which involved the
same military transport ship that decommissioned Syria's declared
chemical weapons stockpiles.
"
Maxine
Waters (D-CA) is now attacking establishment Democrats after they
denounced her calls to form into mobs and attack Trump officials -
blasting Senate and House Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and
Nancy Pelosi after they called for civility and debate in the
wake of her inflammatory comments.
“Leadership
like Chuck Schumer will do anything that they think is necessary to
protect their leadership,"
said Waters during a Sunday appearance on MSNBC's "AM Joy. "What
I have to do is not focus on them. I’ve got to keep the focus on
the children."
'Finish It the Hell Up': Rosenstein stonewalls Congress on Russia hoax
Europe threatens US with new tariffs worth $300bn as trade war escalates
The
United States could get a new round of retaliatory tariffs worth as
much as $300 billion, if it moves ahead with new duties on European
cars, the EU has warned.
In
a written statement to the US Department of Commerce Brussels
reportedly warned that imposing tariffs on European cars “will be
harmful first and foremost for the US economy.”
According
to the 11-page document, “an additional import tariff of 25
percent, applied to automobiles and automotive parts, would in first
instance have a negative impact on US GDP in the order of $13-14
billion, and the current account balance of the US would be not
affected positively.”
US
President Donald Trump recently threatened to hit imports of European
cars with a 20 percent tariff if Brussels doesn’t remove levies and
other trade barriers on US goods.
Trump
said on Sunday that the EU was “as bad” as China when it came to
the way European countries traded with the US. He dismissed
suggestions that his attacks on the EU were counterproductive and
that he should instead strengthen relations with European countries
to tackle the Chinese trade issue together.
Washington’s
so-called allies continue to gravitate towards
the Russian sphere of influence, and specifically the Russian S-400
Triumph advanced anti-aircraft weapon system.
First
it was Turkey, which openly defied Trump's threats that
the US would sanction Ankara if it completes
the purchase of
the anti-aircraft missiles, saying the
acquisition of the missile defense system is "a done deal and
Turkey will not turn back from its decision."
Now
India is also moving towards acquiring five or more S-400 from Russia
despite the threat of US retaliation. The Defense Acquisitions
Council (DAC), chaired by minister Nirmala Sitharaman, last week
approved the “minor deviations” in the $5.7 billion deal to
purchase S-400s for final government approval, to the finance
ministry and the Prime Minister’s office sources told the Times of
India.
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned the World Trade
Organization on Monday that “we’ll be doing something” if the
United States is not treated properly, just hours after the European
Union said that U.S. automotive tariffs would hurt its own vehicle
industry and prompt retaliation.
Trump,
speaking to reporters during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte at the White House, said, “The WTO has treated the United
States very, very badly and I hope they change their ways.”
His
comments came after the Axios news website reported that Trump’s
administration has drafted proposed legislation that would allow
Trump to raise tariffs at will and negotiate special tariff rates
with specific countries — two basic violations of WTO rules.
The
United States has “a big disadvantage with the WTO. And we’re not
planning anything now, but if they don’t treat us properly, we’ll
be doing something,” Trump said, without elaborating.
(Reuters)
- The U.S. government moved on Monday to block China Mobile (0941.HK)
from offering services to the U.S. telecommunications market,
recommending its application be rejected because the government-owned
firm posed national security risks.
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