Donald Trump has started his visit to Ireland by comparing the country's post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which the US president wants to build a permanent wall. The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who looked visibly uncomfortable at the joint press conference, responded by saying that 'the main thing we want to avoid, of course, is a wall or a border'
Continue reading...Category Archives: US foreign policy
Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says
‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report
The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.
Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.
Continue reading...Trump officials approved Saudi nuclear permits after Khashoggi murder
- Seven licenses approved for Riyadh by US energy department
- Democrats: ‘Were decisions … based on Trump’s financial ties?’
The Trump administration twice approved licenses for the export of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, it emerged on Tuesday.
Related: Jamal Khashoggi: murder in the consulate
Continue reading...41-gun salutes and a Twitter tirade: Donald Trump arrives in UK
US president attends Buckingham Palace banquet after starting state visit with angry tweets
- Follow all the latest on Trump’s visit with our live blog
Donald Trump breezed into Britain by launching an attack on London’s mayor and berating so-called fake news before being honoured with a glittering banquet hosted by the Queen.
Buckingham Palace provided the sumptuous backdrop for the US president, who had long desired the endorsement of an official state visit, and took the opportunity to bring four of his five children with him.
Continue reading...China says war with US would be a disaster as tensions mount
Defence minister Wei Fenghe said China would ‘fight to the end’ on trade issues but was open to talks
Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe criticised the United States on Sunday for its support for self-ruled Taiwan and for naval operations in the disputed South China Sea, but said conflict or war between the two countries would be a disaster.
Wei told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s premier defence summit, that China would “fight to the end” if anyone tried to split China from Taiwan, which Beijing considers a sacred territory to be taken by force if necessary.
Continue reading...Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan
London mayor hits out at US president before his state visit to Britain
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.
Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Mexico could tighten migration controls to defuse Trump tariffs threat
- Andrés Manuel López Obrador hints at concession to US
- Talks over US president threat in Washington next week
Mexico’s president hinted on Saturday that his country could tighten migration controls in order to defuse Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods. Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he expected “good results” from talks in Washington next week.
Related: 'No idea too lunatic': how Trump's shock troops attack US democracy
Continue reading...Evidence Iran was behind Gulf attacks to be presented to UN, John Bolton says
Trump national security adviser says evidence can be shown as early as next week
Evidence that Iran has been behind recent attacks on oil tankers and pipelines in the Gulf is likely to be presented to the UN Security Council as early as next week, John Bolton, the US national security adviser, has revealed.
Bolton has previously said Iran was almost certainly responsible for the attacks, but without presenting evidence. In what is likely to be a showdown over the US’s aggressive Iran strategy, in which Bolton has taken a leading role, much will depend on how credibly the US intelligence agencies can show the Iranian government is directing attacks by proxies.
Continue reading...Nuclear watchdog chief: no evidence that Russia is violating test ban
- US general said Moscow had ‘probably’ violated moratorium
- Lassina Zerbo contradicts claims of testing at remote island
The head of the international watchdog that monitors signs of nuclear testing has said there is no evidence to support a US allegation that Russia has conducted low-yield tests in violation of an international ban.
Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), said the agency had already investigated the claim made on Wednesday by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt Gen Robert Ashley, that Russia had “probably” violated the moratorium on tests of any yield.
Continue reading...Trump says US will send 1,500 troops to Middle East amid Iran tensions – video
Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US would send 1,500 troops to the Middle East as a protective measure after a breakdown in relations with Iran. ‘Right now, I don’t think Iran wants to fight and I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us,’ the US president said
Continue reading...‘We’ll fight to the end’: China’s media ramps up rhetoric in US trade war
Voices within Chinese state and private media grow more strident as tensions mount
Over the last week, China’s state media outlets have called the US government delusional, compared it to apes shouting on a river bank, and offered to teach the Americans a Chinese idiom: diandao heibai, “to invert black and white”, or deliberately distort the truth.
As trade tensions mount between the US and China, Beijing faces the difficult task of appealing to national pride to shore up confidence in the leadership while also keeping public anger in check.
Continue reading...Is John Bolton trying to drive Trump to war with Iran? – podcast
Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, was a key architect of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now he is stoking tensions with Iran. Julian Borger describes how the standoff could get out of control. Also today: Katharine Viner on how the Guardian is updating its language when reporting on the climate crisis
John Bolton, who has been called “the most dangerous man in the world”, was not Donald Trump’s first pick for his national security adviser. But after a series of resignations, he was plucked from a life of Fox News appearances to reprise his career as the foremost military hawk in the US. Now he has his sights set on Iran and has pushed for a buildup of US military assets in the Gulf.
The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, tells Anushka Asthana that as tensions rise, so do the chances of an accidental – or deliberate – escalation towards war. The echoes of the drumbeat to war in Iraq in 2003 are all too apparent, and it was Bolton’s role in that crisis that prompted a Guardian columnist to attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of him in the tranquil surroundings of the Hay literary festival in 2008. George Monbiot describes how he came out second best from that encounter.
Continue reading...Iran hits back at Trump for tweeting ‘genocidal taunts’
Foreign minister Javad Zarif advises US president to respect country after warning
The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has hit back at Donald Trump’s “genocidal taunts” after a strongly worded warning from Trump that Tehran should not think of attacking the US.
Related: Trump tweets threat: 'If Iran wants to fight, that will be the end of Iran'
Continue reading...US to hold Bahrain economic conference to launch Middle East peace plan
- Official does not confirm Israeli and Palestinian attendance
- Palestinians believe peace plan will be in favour of Israel
The US will hold an international economic “workshop” in Bahrain in late June, seeking to encourage investment in the Palestinian territories as the first part of Donald Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan, the White House said on Sunday.
Related: The ‘ultimate deal’? For Israel, maybe. We Palestinians will never accept it | Hanan Ashrawi
Continue reading...US-Iran conflict would hit energy supplies, says Iranian general
Gen Saleh Jokar also says Iran’s missiles could easily reach US warships in Gulf
Iranian missiles could easily hit US ships in the Gulf, and any conflict would threaten global energy supplies, a senior Iranian military official has said.
As tensions simmered on Friday, Tehran blamed the US for an escalating regional crisis that western intelligence officials fear could lead to open conflict.
Continue reading...John Bolton: the man driving the US towards war … any war
Donald Trump’s national security adviser is stoking tensions with North Korea, Iran and Venezuela, in line with decades of taking the most hawkish position on any given issue
The US is now engaged in three major confrontations around the world that have the potential to degrade into war. And in the driving seat on all three fronts is John Bolton, one of the most fervent believers in American military power ever to work in the White House.
Related: Elizabeth Warren announces plan to protect abortion rights – live
Continue reading...Soaring oil prices cast shadow on US ahead of Opec meeting
Risk to oil market of three simultaneous disruptions becomes lobbying point for Iran and Libya
In November 2018, Donald Trump tweeted: “Oil prices getting lower … a tax cut for America and the world! Enjoy! $54 … Thank you to Saudi Arabia.”
Five months on, with oil prices more than $70, Trump will be in a less celebratory mood as Opec’s oil ministers and their allies gather in Jeddah on Friday, without Iran. The main agenda item will be the implications for oil of three interconnected American foreign policy crises – in Venezuela, Iran, and Libya. Together these crises, being played out simultaneously, have the potential to scrub as much as 3.5m barrels of oil per day from the markets.
Continue reading...Iran tells Middle East militias: prepare for proxy war
Exclusive: Top military leader delivers message at Baghdad meeting as tensions rise
Iran’s most prominent military leader has recently met Iraqi militias in Baghdad and told them to “prepare for proxy war”, the Guardian has learned.
Two senior intelligence sources said that Qassem Suleimani, leader of Iran’s powerful Quds force, summoned the militias under Tehran’s influence three weeks ago, amid a heightened state of tension in the region. The move to mobilise Iran’s regional allies is understood to have triggered fears in the US that Washington’s interests in the Middle East are facing a pressing threat. The UK raised its threat levels for British troops in Iraq on Thursday.
Continue reading...Is John Bolton the most dangerous man in the world? | Ben Armbruster
The US is closer to war with Iran than it has been since the Bush years, or perhaps ever. And Bolton is largely to blame
Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton wants the United States to go to war with Iran.
Related: Merkel: Europe must unite to stand up to China, Russia and US
Continue reading...No increased Iran threat in Syria or Iraq, top British officer says, contradicting US
Deputy commander of anti-Isis coalition rebuts White House justification for sending troops
The top British general in the US-led coalition against Isis has said there is no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria, directly contradicting US assertions used to justify a military buildup in the region.
Hours later however, his assessment was disowned by US Central Command in an extraordinary rebuke of an allied senior officer. A spokesman insisted that the troops in Iraq and Syria were on a high level of alert due to the alleged Iranian threat. The conflicting versions of the reality on the ground added to the confusion and mixed signals in a tense part of the Middle East.
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