by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Tehran : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday warned his US counterpart Donald Trump that abandoning a nuclear deal that the Tehran government signed with world powers in 2015 would lead to “serious consequences”.
Speaking live on television, Rouhani said his government had kept its end of the deal and warned Trump not to tear up the agreement, which had also been signed by Russia, China, Germany, the UK and France.
“I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly,” Rouhani said.
“If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences,” he added.
Trump has said that unless the US’ European allies put right what he has described as “terrible flaws” in the deal by May 12, his government would re-establish economic sanctions on Iran, dealing the pact a major blow, Xinhua news agency reported.
Rouhani stressed that Iran was complying with the deal, as has been confirmed a dozen times by the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose Director General Yukiya Amano said in March that a possible failure of the agreement would be a great loss.
French President Emmanuel Macron was in Washington in an attempt to try and persuade Trump not to walk away from the accord.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any US attempt to wreck the nuclear deal.
Iran has said it would ramp up its nuclear programme if the deal collapses.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : Former FBI Director James Comey has released memos documenting his conversations with Donald Trump that includes the US President’s concerns about media leaks, investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Trump’s recollection of his Russian counterpart telling him that Russia had the “most beautiful hookers in the world”.
The Comey memos sent to Congress from the Justice Department on Thursday night included documentation of seven conversations he had with Trump from January 7, 2017 to April 11, 2017. Four of the notes were classified and partially redacted and three of them were unclassified, the Washington Post reported.
Details published in the notes were consistent with allegations in Comey’s new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership”.
The memos reveal the extent of Trump’s preoccupation with unproven allegations that he had consorted with prostitutes while in Moscow in 2013. Trump, according to the memos, repeatedly denied the allegations and persuaded Comey to help disprove them, while also recalling being told by Putin that Russia has the “most beautiful prostitutes”.
Comey also wrote that the President said on January 27 he had “serious reservations” about Flynn. “The guy has serious judgment issues,” the former FBI head was told. Flynn was forced to resign over charges that he had lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. He is now cooperating with the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Comey wrote that he was asked by Trump to drop an inquiry into links between Flynn and Russia. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump was reported to have said after a White House meeting.
Trump seized on the memos in a Twitter message and said: “James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?”
Comey’s memo of his February 14, 2017, discussion with Trump included a previously unreported exchange about trying to prevent leaks. At the time, he was upset that transcripts of his phone conversations with the Mexican and Australian leaders had appeared in The Washington Post.
Trump was also focussed on loyalty, as Comey said in Congressional testimony and his book. In their final April 11 conversation, Comey wrote that Trump told him: “I have been very loyal to you, very loyal, we had that thing, you know.”
Comey said that he assumed Trump was referring to his previous pledge for loyalty before his inauguration, where Comey responded he would provide “honesty”, and Trump responded, “honest loyalty”.
The former FBI chief was fired in May.
Trump’s complaint about the “cloud” hanging over him due to the Russia investigation was also included in the memos. In the same conversation, Trump also suggested he would sue Christopher Steele, the British ex-intelligence officer who wrote the dossier, although he never did so.
The unredacted, classified version of the memos will be made available to Congress, the Department of Justice said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The White House has denied any direct talks yet between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, though Washington has spoken to Pyongyang “at the highest levels”.
The White House statement on Tuesday came minutes after Trump seemingly hinted that he has already spoken with Kim, Xinhua news agency reported.
When asked by reporters if he had spoken directly with Kim, Trump had said “yes”.
In the statement, issued after the confusing incident, the White House said, “In regards to talks with leader Kim Jong-un, the President said the administration has had talks at the highest levels” and added that they were not with him directly.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump himself also said that Washington and Pyongyang have already started direct talks at “very high levels,” without specifying how “high” the level was.
“We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea,” Trump said. He might have hinted at CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s reportedly top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as his envoy.
The trip made by Pompeo was an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between the leaders of the two countries. No official confirmation of Pompeo’s visit has come yet.
Trump was expected to meet Kim in May or early June. The venue of the meeting was still to be decided. Trump said that five sites were being weighed and none of them were located in the US.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula has thawed over the last few months. The South and North have agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit on April 27, the first meeting between the leaders of the two sides in 11 years.
“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Trump on Tuesday, referring to the summit.
The 1950-1953 Korean war ended in an armistice. The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Former FBI Director James Comey
Washington : Former FBI Director James Comey in his first exclusive interview since he was fired last May said that Donald Trump was “morally unfit” to be the President of the US.
In the exclusive ABC News interview on Sunday night, Comey dismissed claims made by some that Trump was medically unfit to hold office.
“I often hear people talk about it. I don’t buy this stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia. He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who’s tracking conversations and knows what’s going on,” Comey said.
“I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president.
“A person who treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds,” Comey added.
The interview comes ahead of the release of his tell-all book “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” on Tuesday.
Also a lawyer, Comey told ABC News that he was standing in the middle of the Los Angeles Federal Bureau of Investigation field office on May 9, 2017, thanking employees and the building’s support staff for their hard work, when he saw the televisions on the wall flash “Comey Resigns”.
“One of the many great things about the FBI is we have some hilarious pranksters, and so I thought it was a scam by someone on my staff…”
As the TVs in the bureau started to show the news on other networks, he saw some were displaying the words “Comey Fired”.
“The audience could see my face change,” he said.
Comey said his reaction to the news was disbelief. “That’s crazy… How could that be?”
He received a call from then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly who was “very upset” with the news and was thinking about quitting too.
Comey said he urged Kelly to remain in the administration.
The former FBI Director said that he was “actually nervous” to meet Trump in person.
“I’m about to meet a person who doesn’t know me, who’s just been elected president of the United States… And I’m about to talk to him about allegations that he was involved with prostitutes in Moscow and that the Russians taped it and have leverage over him.
“He had impressively coiffed hair, his tie was too long as it always is, he looked slightly orange up close with small white half-moons under his eyes, which I assume are from tanning goggles,” he said.
When asked if the Russians had something on Trump, Comey said: “I think it’s possible. I don’t know… These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a president of the United States, but it’s possible.”
Comey told ABC News that he knew the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server was going to present a “no-win situation” for him.
Comey revealed that while he did not vote in the 2016 election saying that as the FBI director he was “trying to be outside of politics” and there were a lot of Clinton supporters in his family.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke with leaders of France and Germany on the expulsion of Russian diplomats.
Earlier on Monday, he also spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to coordinate stances on the issue.
The White House said Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
The three nations on Monday announced to expel Russian diplomats over the poisoning attack of former Russian double agent Skripal and his daughter in Britain’s southwestern city of Salisbury on March 4.
In his call with Macron, Trump and the French top leader expressed support for the West’s “strong response” to the Russia-related incident, including the expulsion of a large number of Russian intelligence officers on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the call, Trump also stressed the need to intensify cooperation with Turkey with respect to shared strategic challenges in Syria.
In a separate call with Merkel, Trump reaffirmed with her the cooperative relationship between the two countries.
Both leaders praised the joint announcements from North Atlantic Treaty Organization Allies, EU member states and other countries to expel “undeclared Russian intelligence officers” in solidarity with Britain and in response to Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons, said the White House.
Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Earlier on Monday, Trump spoke with Trudeau to affirm the solidarity of both countries with the UK and discuss the joint expulsions of Russian intelligence officers in response to Russia’s alleged use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the United Kingdom’s soil.
The White House said in a separate statement that Russia’s behavior “is the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.”
On Monday, at least 137 Russian diplomats were ordered out by 24 governments, including 60 Russians from the US.
William Courtney, adjunct senior fellow of RAND Corporation, said that West-Russia relations will become more strained, but the West is willing to run this risk.
In his protest, Russia Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that Moscow will give adequate response with regard to each case in the coming days.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said later that the West’s expulsion of its diplomats is an unfriendly step, and vowed to react accordingly.
—IANS
