by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Brussels : European Union (EU) leaders have voiced their commitment to the Iran nuclear deal and its full implementation by all sides, despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to decertify Iran’s compliance with the deal.
The leaders of France, Germany and Britain, in a joint statement issued by 10 Downing Street on Friday, said they were concerned by the possible implications of Trump’s decision, urging the US Administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies “before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPoA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement”, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was “a major step” towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear programme is not diverted for military purposes, the statement stressed.
Noting that the JCPoA was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231, the leaders of the EU trio said the International Atomic Energy Agency “has repeatedly confirmed Iran’s compliance with the JCPoA” through its long-term verification and monitoring program.
“Our governments are committed to ensuring the JCPoA is maintained,” the joint statement said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the three countries also said they “share concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programme and regional activities that also affect our European security interests.”
“We stand ready to take further appropriate measures to address these issues in close cooperation with the US and all relevant partners. We look to Iran to engage in constructive dialogue to stop de-stabilising actions and work towards negotiated solutions,” they added in the statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed regret over Trump’s decision to decertify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear deal, arguing that Tehran strictly abides by the landmark agreement.
Israel has, however, welcomed Trump’s decision to not certify the landmark nuclear deal with Iran and also hailed his remarks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump’s remarks on Friday as a “courageous decision”, Xinhua reported.
Saudi Arabian government has also welcomed the firm new strategy towards Iran announced by Trump.
Following Trump’s announcement that he had decided not to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark deal, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU will continue to fully implement the Iran nuclear deal.
“It’s not a bilateral agreement. It does not belong to any single country. It’s not up to any single country to terminate it,” said Mogherini at a press conference.
“We cannot afford… to dismantle a nuclear agreement this is working and delivering,” she said, stressing the IAEA has verified eight times that Iran is implementing all its nuclear-related commitments.
“The US’ domestic process — and I underline domestic — following today’s announcement of President Trump is now in the hands of the United States’ Congress. The JCPOA is not a domestic issue but a United Nations Security Council Resolution,” the EU Foreign Policy chief stressed.
“The European Union continues to fully support the Iran nuclear deal, and the full and strict implementation of all its provisions by all parties,” said Mogherini.
The Iran nuclear deal, or the JCPOA, was reached in 2015 between Iran and Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.
The EU also played an important role in brokering the deal and deemed it as one of the bloc’s outstanding diplomatic achievements.
Trump announced on Friday that he had decided to decertify Iran’s compliance with the landmark deal.
“I am announcing today that we cannot and will not make this certification,” Trump said at the White House as he unveiled a new Iran strategy of his administration.
Despite his criticism of Iran and the Iran nuclear deal, Trump on Friday stopped short of abandoning the nuclear deal.
Instead, he said he was directing his administration to work with Congress and US allies to address “the deal’s many serious flaws,” including “insufficient enforcement and near-total silence on Iran’s missile programs”.
In case the efforts fail, Trump warned that “then the (Iran nuclear) agreement will be terminated”.
The decertification would not pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal at the moment, but it would open a 60-day window in which US Congress could reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, a step which would mean the violation of the deal on the US side.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Washington : US President Donald Trump has said if talks to reform North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fail, he could envisage a US-Canada trade pact, excluding Mexico.
The US president said if there was no deal on the NAFTA, it would be terminated. He was speaking at the White House on Wednesday with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, BBC reported.
Replying to a question, Trump said he would consider a trade pact with Canada minus Mexico, adding that both the US and Canada wanted to protect their workers.
The current round of talks on renegotiating the trade bloc is reported to be stalling, with Mexico opposing a US move to increase the percentage of US-made components in car manufacturing.
Trump’s stance has, however, been criticised by US businesses.
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, speaking ahead of the latest round of talks, said terminating Nafta could harm US-Mexico relations and damage co-operation on issues like fighting drug-trafficking.
Trudeau said he believed the Nafta talks could still end in a “win, win, win”.
But he said Canada had to “be ready for anything” if the attempts to modernise the 23-year-old deal faltered.
Overall trade between the three Nafta partners reached $1.1 trillion in 2016.
American and Mexican officials say they want a re-negotiated deal by December.
This week the influential US Chamber of Commerce warned it was time to “ring alarm bells” over the NAFTA talks.
The business lobby group said there were “several poison pill proposals” put on the table by the US that could tank the renegotiations.
Those include US demands to adjust the rules of origin, which would increase the percentage of the content of car parts and other materials that would come from NAFTA countries in order for a good to qualify as duty free – a specific concern for the North American auto industry.
The US and Canadian leaders also discussed the Bombardier-Boeing trade dispute.
Canada and the UK are sparring with the US over Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier.
The Trump administration has imposed hefty duties on Bombardier’s C-Series jetliner.
American aerospace firm Boeing claims Bombardier received unfair government subsidies to produce its showcase passenger jet.
Bombardier is a significant employer in Northern Ireland and Canada.
Trudeau said he “highlighted to the president how much we disagree vehemently” on the decision to impose anti-dumping duties.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Arul Louis,
New York : US President Donald Trump has sent a new 70-point enforcement plan to Congress proposing the stiffest reforms ever offered by an administration, but kept mum on the H1-B visas.
Trump’s request for sweeping immigration reforms unveiled by the White house Sunday night would continue to allow the spouses and children of immigrants to get green cards or permanent resident status but not their brothers, sisters and parents.
“The goal of the merit-based system that awards green cards based on factors like education, employability and English language proficiency is “to promote assimilation and financial success,” the White House said.
A merit-based system is likely to benefit India if the national quotas limiting green cards to about 20,000 per country per year are also done away with and they are awarded purely on merit.
Because of the large number of highly qualified Indians, for most of the professionals from the country there is a 11-year wait to get green cards and a merit-based system could cut down the delay. Professionals from all countries except India and three others do not have to wait for their green cards.
Trump’s package of wide-ranging proposals made to keep his election promise of getting tough on immigration faces stiff opposition in the Congress from Democrats and some Republicans and is unlikely to pass in the near future.
The request to Congress for legislation formalises the immigration reform plan he announced in August.
The proposals sent on Sunday deal only with permanent immigration and with illegal immigration, and not with the temporary H1-B visas given to professionals and advanced degree-holders from US universities.
India has expressed concern over the future of H1-B visas because Trump had said during his election campaign that he would limit them because he asserted they affected the employment prospects of Americans.
When External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month, she raised the H1-B visas.
So far the H1-B system has been functioning without any changes and the immigration service is processing applications at the same levels as before.
One of the items in the proposal that concerns Indians is the future of those brought in illegally by their parents as children and have grown up here.
It is estimated that there about 7,500 Indians in this category referred to as “Dreamers”.
Former President Barack Obama issued a presidential order allowing the “Dreamers” to remain in the US and to work.
Trump is rescinding the order and asking Congress to pass a law to allow them to stay on.
Yet another issue that concerns India is that of illegal immigrants and criminals whom the US wants to deport, but New Delhi has refused to accept some of them because of what it says are inadequate proof of their identity and Indian citizenship.
Trump wants Congress to enact laws to circumvent court rulings against indefinite detention of criminals who cannot be deported and allow the government to keep them in custody.
Three other major requests from Trump include funding the building of a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants, tightening standards for admitting asylum-seekers, and enabling the “prompt” deportation of unaccompanied minors and families illegally entering the country.
“The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the ‘Dreamers’ if they begin with a list that is anathema to the ‘Dreamers’,” Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, said.
Explaining the request for a merit-based immigration system, the White House said they were to “establish a point-based system for awarding green cards that protects US workers and taxpayers, encourages assimilation, and ensures the financial self-sufficiency of newcomers”.
Administration officials who briefed reporters by phone, pointed out that the US was the only major industrialised country that did not have a merit-based immigration system.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By C. Uday Bhaskar,
Almost 16 years to the day since the US embarked upon its war on terrorism against the Afghan Taliban on October 7, 2001, as reprisal for the enormity of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it appears that a White House administration is again issuing dire warnings to Rawalpindi (GHQ of the Pakistan Army) while still dangling the familiar “carrot”.
At a congressional hearing of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC on Tuesday (October 4), General Joseph Dunford, Chairman, US Joints Chiefs of Staff, observed candidly: “I think it’s clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups.” This is not the first time that an incumbent in his chair has come to such a determination.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis had a similar assessment, adding that while Pakistan may have come down on terrorism, “the ISI appears to run its own foreign policy”. This is an unusually unambiguous assertion by a senior US offical but General Mattis added the caveat too: “We need to try one more time to make this strategy work with them; by, with and through the Pakistanis. And if our best efforts fail, the President (Trump) is prepared to take whatever steps are necessary.”
The war in Afghanistan, where Pakistan was accorded the status of a major non-NATO ally, has been expensive for the US both in terms of blood and treasure. A study by the Brown University estimates that, as of 2016, the US may have spent up to $ 2 trillion towards the Afghan campaign, which still remains inconclusive and messy.
As a benchmark, it may be relevant to note that India’s GDP in 2016 was estimated to be $ 2.26 trillion. The total number of people killed since the US led war against terror began in October 2001 has crossed 370,000 and the number displaced is upwards of 800,000. And the violence continues.
Will the latest warning by the Trump team have the desired effect on the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the “deep-state” in that country? It is difficult to be optimistic.
Three high-level political visits in end September frame the intractable nature of the Afghan war. They were dramatically illustrated by events in Kabul. Mattis arrived in Kabul from Delhi (September 26) and a few hours later the airport was subjected to rocket fire by the local Taliban. This attack on the Kabul airport led to a delay in the visit of Abdullah Abdullah, CEO of Afghanistan, to Delhi.
It is pertinent to note that in their public remarks in Kabul and Delhi, the two men reiterated the imperative of closing down safe havens and sanctuaries for terror groups and dismantling the infrastructure in the region that supports such bloodshed.
The not-so-subtle reference was to Pakistan and its deep-state that continues to support groups such as the Haqqani network, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates.
This brings us to the third visit — that of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in end September to the US, where he asserted that charges of Pakistan sheltering terrorists were “untrue”, and that the only cross-border movement of terrorists was “from Afghanistan to Pakistan”!
Abbasi went further and categorically ruled out any role for India in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, adding, “Zero, we don’t foresee any political or military role for India in Afghanistan.”
This inflexible veto that Pakistan has accorded unto itself in relation to the internal affairs of Afghanistan and the brazen manner in which it continues to deny the role being played by Rawalpindi in supporting terror groups lies at the core of the political and military challenge for the US, India and Afghanistan.
This was reiterated during the Mattis-Nirmala Sitharaman (India’s Defence Minister) meeting in Delhi. A highly respected US marine corps general, Mattis has first-hand experience of the war in Afghanistan and is deeply aware of Pakistani duplicity, wherein the US taxpayers money is being spent to attack and kill US military personnel.
The (George W.) Bush and (Barack) Obama administrations were aware of this fundamental contradiction — that in September 2001 — before 9/11, Pakistan was one of just three nations in the world who recognised the Afghan Taliban and their regime in Kabul at that time.
Yet the White House chose to overlook this contradiction and allowed Pakistan to become a non-NATO ally in the global war on terror. Further ironies followed, for in October 2001, when the US and its allies were bombing Afghanistan, the wily General Pervez Musharraf was able to strike a deal with the Pentagon and safely withdraw Pakistan army personnel in Afghanistan who were assisting the Taliban.
The metaphor hunting with the (US) hounds and running with the (Taliban) hare could not be more apt.
But the more relevant question that many US citizens ask in anger is how the world’s lone superpower could allow such perfidy to continue for years. This is the question that President Trump is seeking to answer and introduce a much needed corrective to the US South Asia policy.
India, which is also a stakeholder in the war against terror, is a major development partner in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and has provided aid in excess of $2 billion. During the Mattis visit Defence Minister Sitharaman confirmed that while Delhi would not send any troops to Afghanistan, it would enhance its training role for security and police personnel.
The critical military equipment that the Afghan military needs is a complex matter and India is constrained by its own military inventory gaps and the dependence on Russian-origin equipment that cannot be supplied without involving Moscow in the deliberations.
The sub-text of the three visits illuminates both the nature of the Afghan conundrum and the difficulties inherent in crafting policy options that will be more effective than what has been the cost-benefit analysis of the last 16 years. To add to the complexity, Beijing has also become an interlocutor.
Even as the Mattis-Abdullah visits were taking place, the second meeting of the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan (CAP) Practical Cooperation Dialogue was held in Kabul (September 26, 27).
Weaning Rawalpindi away from supporting terror groups will not be a swift binary choice and the White House has considerable experience in the matter. Whether President Trump will be able to cut the Gordian knot remains moot.
(C. Uday Bhaskar is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi. He can be contacted at cudayb@gmail.com. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : US President Donald Trump has planned to announce next week that he will “decertify” the landmark Iran nuclear deal, a move that could lead to the potential collapse of the agreement.
Trump was expected to roll out a broader US strategy on Iran, in which his decision on the nuclear deal was an important part, Xinhua quoted officials as saying.
On October 15, Trump is due to testify to Congress whether Tehran is complying with the deal and whether it remains in the US interests in sticking to it.
If he decides it is not, it could open the way for US lawmakers to re-impose sanctions, leading to the potential collapse of the agreement.
Trump has long criticised the Iran nuclear pact, a signature deal reached between Iran and the world six powers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany in July 2015.
In his speech delivered at UN General Assembly last month, Trump called the agreement “an embarrassment” for the US and indicated that he may not re-certify the deal at its mid-October deadline.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned earlier that Tehran will only abide by the provisions under the nuclear deal if the other parties remain committed to it.
The Iran nuclear deal, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has helped defuse the Iran nuclear crisis and bolster the international non-proliferation regime.
—IANS
