Tag: InternationalNews

{Iran’s foreign ministry responds to US sanctions by announcing reciprocal measures as Washington-Tehran tensions mount.}

The United States has announced new sanctions against Iran after its recent missile test, a move denounced by Tehran which said it would impose its own legal restrictions on American individuals and entities.

In a statement on its website on Friday, the US Treasury said it had added 13 Iranians and 12 companies, some of which are based in Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and China, to its sanctions list.

“Iran’s continued support for terrorism and development of its ballistic missile programme poses a threat to the region, to our partners worldwide, and to the United States,” said John Smith, acting director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Among those sanctioned were companies, individuals, and brokers the US Treasury said support a trade network run by Iranian businessman Abdollah Asgharzadeh.

The Treasury said the businessman supported Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which, according to the US, is a subsidiary of an Iranian entity that runs Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

The Treasury also sanctioned what it said was a Lebanon-based network run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite military body that is also powerful in Iranian politics and the economy.

Later on Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the sanctions as illegal and vowed to reciprocate any measures taken against Tehran by the US.

“In retaliation for the US sanctions, Iran will impose legal restrictions on some American individuals and entities that were involved in helping and founding regional terrorist groups,” state TV quoted a ministry statement as saying.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting fromTehran, said the “list of individuals and entities will be released by the Iranian foreign ministry after it decides who will make the cut”.

Iran last Sunday test-fired a medium-range missile, which the White House contends violated a UN Security Council resolution proscribing missiles that could carry a nuclear device.

Tehran has confirmed it tested a ballistic missile but denied it was a breach of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers or UN resolutions.

Earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump had said Iran was “playing with fire” after Tehran dismissed his warnings over the missile test as unfounded and provocative.

In a post on Twitter, Trump said his administration would not be as “kind” to Iran as the government of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“Iran is playing with fire – they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!” Trump said.

The comment appeared to prompt a quick response from Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister.

“Iran unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people. Will never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defence,” Zarif wrote also on Twitter.

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said “all these new tensions that are emerging, and this war of words between the US and Iran in and of itself is endangering” the nuclear deal.

“The Trump administration has decided to really dial up this escalation without first establishing de-escalatory mechanisms – they don’t have a direct dialogue with Iran in order to be able to calm things down once they believe they have achieved their objectives,” he told Al Jazeera.

“So if you only have an ability to dial it up, but not dial it now, that is what is most worrisome right now because it could unfortunately lead to a military confrontation.”

Also on Friday, Iran said it had barred a US wrestling team from participating in the Freestyle World Cup competition in retaliation for an executive order by Trump banning visas for Iranians, Iran’s state television reported.

On Wednesday, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn insisted the missile test was in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls on Iran not to test missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

Bahram Ghasemi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, on Thursday called the claims “baseless, repetitive and provocative”.

{US Defense Secretary James Mattis makes first foreign trip to key ally South Korea and reaffirms military alliance.}

The US defence secretary warned North Korea on Friday of an “effective and overwhelming” response if Pyongyang chose to use nuclear weapons.

“Any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming,” Defense Secretary James Mattis said on a visit to South Korea, one of America’s closest allies.

The remarks came as concern from its opponents mounted that North Korea could be readying a new ballistic missile test, in what could be an early diplomatic challenge for President Donald Trump’s administration.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Seoul, said: “There is a great deal of focus as to potential change in US policy towards North Korea and towards the alliance here in South Korea as well.”

North Korea, which is technically still at war with the South since signing an Armistice agreement in 1953, carried out more than 20 missile tests last year, as well as two nuclear tests, in defiance of UN resolutions and sanctions.

“North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons programme and engage in threatening rhetoric and behaviour,” Mattis said at the end of the two-day visit – his first overseas trip.

{{Missile system}}

A US missile defence system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), is due to be deployed in South Korea later this year. China has objected to THAAD, saying it will destabilise the regional security balance, leading to calls from some South Korean opposition leaders to delay or cancel it.

“Both governments committed themselves to implementing it by the end of this year, but a presidential impeachment scandal is still ongoing here,” Al Jazeera’s Fawcett said. “It is possible there will be a change in government before that. So it remains something of an open question.”

South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo, though, reaffirmed plans to deploy THAAD and said Mattis’ visit to Seoul – his first trip as defence secretary – sent a clear message of strong US support.

“Faced with a current severe security situation, Secretary Mattis’ visit to Korea … also communicates the strongest warning to North Korea,” Han said.

The US military has a permanent base in South Korea and the two countries conduct regular military drills that the North has called provocations. The reclusive state has often threatened military action, including nuclear and missile attacks against South Korea and the US.

The North appears to have restarted operation of a reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear facility that produces plutonium that can be used for its nuclear weapons programme, according to US think tank 38 North.

Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental US, which is about 9,000km from North Korea. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500km, but some are designed to travel 10,000km or more.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Rights groups urge Canada to lift cap on refugee sponsorship after US bars entry to refugees and immigrants.}

Toronto, Canada – Canada has said it will not boost its refugee intake in 2017, despite widespread calls for Ottawa to take action to counter US President Donald Trump’s executive order barring entry to refugees and immigrants from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Canada plans to resettle 40,000 refugees and protected persons in the country this year, both through government support and private sponsorship.

“Our immigration levels plan has an allocation that is historically high for refugees,” said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen earlier this week. “We intend to maintain that plan.”

But human rights groups and refugee advocates are calling on Canada to lift its cap on refugee sponsorship in 2017, especially in light of curbs to immigration south of the border.

Passed last Friday, Trump’s executive order blocks immigration from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia for 90 days, suspends the US refugee programme for 120 days, and indefinitely bars Syrian refugees from being resettled until such a time that is “consistent with the national interest”.

The so-called “Muslim ban” has stranded travelers and visa- and green card-holders, and separated families.

“There’s obviously a very immediate and urgent concern that hundreds or even thousands of refugees have suddenly been left in the lurch, individuals who thought they were well on their way to being resettled in the United States,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.

“Canada is very well placed to step in and ensure that another avenue to safety opens,” Neve told Al Jazeera.

Over the weekend, as confusion reigned in airports around the world, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was praised after he tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada”.

But Canada has already reached its cap of 1,000 new private sponsorship applications for Syrian and Iraqi refugees this year and the government does not plan to lift it.

Private sponsorship allows local organisations that hold agreements with the government to resettle refugees. These groups are responsible for the family’s needs during their first year in Canada.

The government said it would grant temporary resident visas to anyone with a valid US visa who was stranded in Canada as a result of the executive order.

And Hussen said Ottawa has “received assurances from the White House and other US authorities that Canadian citizens, Canadian dual citizens, and permanent residents with valid permanent resident cards continue to have access to the United States and are not affected” by Trump’s executive order.

But pressure is mounting on Ottawa to do more.

Among the calls for action, human rights groups are pushing Canada to lift the Safe Third Country Agreement. The agreement blocks asylum seekers who first land in the US from making an asylum application in Canada, save for a few exceptions, on the basis that the US is a “safe country” for refugees.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the agreement should be suspended because it “does not consider the US at this current time to be a ‘safe third country’”.

But Hussen, the immigration minister, said this week that “the conditions of that agreement continue to be met”.

Meanwhile, the New Democratic Party called for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday to discuss Canada’s response. The party has called on Ottawa to lift the Safe Third Country Agreement and the cap on refugee resettlement, and fast-track refugee applications from the US.

“There is no question that this ban promotes hate and intolerance. This ban will have a disastrous affect for thousands of innocent travelers and refugees,” said Jenny Kwan, a parliament member and the NDP’s immigration critic.

Canadians have also shown vocal opposition to the ban. Hundreds of people rallied in front of the US Consulate in downtown Toronto on Monday, chanting, “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here!”.

“Trump claims that we need an extreme vetting process, which is kind of a ridiculous statement to me, because the vetting process for refugees and green card holders is extremely rigorous to begin with,” said John Park, a US citizen who said he saw how difficult the process was for his wife to get a green card.

“To say that you need even more vetting is absolutely a red herring that Trump is appealing to peoples’ worst instincts. He is trying to make people think that refugees and foreigners are causing problems and that’s absolutely false.”

Anne Rubenstein, a history professor at York University in Toronto who took part in the protest, said she was “so outraged [she] can barely find the words”.

“As Jews, we understand that banning people from a country because of their race and religion never ends well,” Rubenstein told Al Jazeera.

“I hope we shut the consulate down here and I hope it stays shut down until they reverse this idiotic, appalling and illegal executive order. I’m disgusted, and I say that as a US citizen, as a Jew, and as a historian.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Governor cuts funding to law enforcement to penalise Austin, a ‘sanctuary’ city offering safety to the undocumented.}

Texas, US – Hundreds of protesters took to the Texas capital on Thursday to rally against the halting of more than a million dollars towards law enforcement.

Earlier, Governor Greg Abbott kept to his promise to withhold $1.5 million from Travis County’s law enforcement in a bid to penalise Austin’s “sanctuary city” status.

Sanctuary cities in general offer safety to undocumented migrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Sanctuary city is not an official designation.

Now, Texas lawmakers are discussing Senate Bill 4, which aims to cut funding and impose other consequences on cities that provide safe harbour to the undocumented.

“When I came in, there was a long line to sign up to testify in support of Austin’s sanctuary city status … it’s a lot of people,” Cristina Parker, immigration programmes director at the civil rights group Grassroots Leadership, told Al Jazeera.

Parker explained that Abbott’s decision was viewed negatively by the community.

“We all rally around law enforcement. We don’t see any reason behind cutting their funding,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

{{Questionable legality}}

But community concerns do not end there.

Texas legislators added other amendments to the anti-sanctuary city bill on Wednesday.

These include a provision that requires authorities to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for deportations.

ICE often issues a written request to local law enforcement agencies to detain an individual they suspect of being in the United States without legal status for 48 hours.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups have called attention to the fact that these requests, known as “detainers”, have been found to be in violation of the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment which requires due process of the law.

A 2014 memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security admitted that ICE’s detainers were legally questionable.

Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez ordered her officers not to enforce these detainers, which prompted the protest.

Robert Painter, a lawyer and interim executive director of American Gateways, an organisation that provides low cost legal help to refugees and immigrants fleeing violence and persecution, echoed these concerns.

“There’s no court warrant behind it. Often, there’s not a lot of hard evidence behind it. Detainers aren’t legally binding,” Painter told Al Jazeera. “If local law enforcement adheres to this request and hold someone for 48 hours, they’re violating constitutional law.”

Another amendment states that if an undocumented person convicted of a Class B misdemeanour or higher is then released and goes on to commit a felony, the person harmed by the said felony can sue the city or municipality.

This measure raised further concerns around discrimination.

“As far as I know, there’s no law in Texas that allows cities to be sued for the illegal actions of US citizens,” Painter commented.

{{‘A different sense of urgency’}}

Al Jazeera contacted Abbott’s office for comment on these concerns but did not receive a reply.

Immigrants in Austin who seek to become legal residents face a long road.

The nearest immigration court is in San Antonio, more than 120 kilometres away, and the majority of current cases will not be heard until November 2019, Painter explained.

A two-year wait amid a hostile state and national government leaves vulnerable migrants in fear, Parker said.

The protests in Austin come as US President Donald Trump continues to target the undocumented, threatening to deport them, and boasting about the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico to stem migration.

But according to Parker, this has given vigour to the movement to protect the undocumented.

“There’s a lot more energy. I credit that with Trump supplying more fear. People feel a different sense of urgency,” she concluded.

Source:Al Jazeera

{US president calls refugee deal with Australia “dumb” after report leaked of harsh call with Prime Minister Turnbull.}

US President Donald Trump ripped into his Australian counterpart in a phone call last week, reports said, castigating an Obama-era refugee deal he later described on Twitter as a “dumb deal”.

The Washington Post said Trump abruptly cut short the fiery conversation after criticising the agreement to re-settle people kept in Pacific camps, sparking a war of words with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday after the report surfaced.

Australia is considered a close US ally – one of the so-called “Five Eyes” with which the US routinely shares sensitive intelligence – and the call might have been expected to be smooth sailing.
But, according to the Post, Trump’s assessment was the opposite.

Of his four conversations with world leaders that day “This was the worst call by far,” it cited him as telling Turnbull, shortly before he terminated the telephone meeting.

Australian government sources told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the report was “substantially accurate”.

Turnbull said he was disappointed details of the “very frank and forthright” exchange had been leaked.

“As far as the call is concerned I’m very disappointed that there has been a leak of purported details of the call in Washington,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.

“But I want to make one observation about it – the report that the president hung up is not correct. The call ended courteously.”

He added that Canberra had “very, very strong standards in the way we deal with other leaders and we are not about to reveal details of conversations other than in a manner that is agreed.”

The Post’s account is markedly different from the official version of the call provided by both governments.

Turnbull said on Monday that Trump had agreed to honor the deal agreed with then president Barack Obama to resettle an unspecified number of the 1,600 people Australia holds in offshore detention centers on the islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

There were fears the new US president would rescind it after he signed an executive order last week to suspend the arrival of refugees to the US for a least 120 days, and bar entry for three months to people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

{{Diplomatic crisis }}

After the Post story broke late on Wednesday, Trump weighed in on Twitter and threw the agreement into doubt.

After seeing the tweet, Turnbull insisted that Trump had already agreed it would go ahead.

“The commitment made by the president in that call was made and we announced that and it was confirmed by his spokesman a day or so later,” he said.

Reports of the Turnbull-Trump conversation came as the US and Mexican governments were denying claims that the former reality TV star had threatened to send troops into Mexico to deal with drug cartels.

Mexican journalist Dolia Estevez, citing “confidential” US and Mexican sources, said Trump made the threat during an hour-long phone call with President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday.

Mexican and White House officials vehemently denied the report.

Relations have plunged into the biggest diplomatic crisis between the two neighbors in decades.

Trump angered Mexicans last week by ordering the construction of a massive border wall and vowing to make their country pay for the wall.

Pena Nieto has pledged that his government will never pay for the barrier and canceled a meeting with Trump scheduled for this week in Washington.

In addition to the row over the wall, Trump wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Mexican officials expect talks to begin in May.

{NATO chief says Russia must end the violence as both sides move heavy artillery close to front line.}

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Russia to use its “considerable influence” to end fighting in eastern Ukraine after a renewed surge in violence there.

Moscow-backed rebels and government forces have trade blame for the flare-up in the industrial east that has seen the highest casualty rate since mid-December and cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on both sides of the front line.

The shelling eased on Wednesday, but the January 29 to 31 clashes near the Kiev-held front line town of Avdiyivka brought the festering conflict back into focus amid warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

“We call for an immediate return to the ceasefire,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels. “We call on Russia to use its considerable influence over the separatists to bring the violence to an end.”

Ukraine and NATO accuse Russia of providing troops and weapons to support separatist rebels in the country’s east in a conflict that has killed 10,000 people since April 2014. Moscow denies that.

Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the European security body OSCE’s mission to Ukraine, told Al Jazeera that the new US administration was not being clear about how it would deal with the rising tensions.

“In the previous administration, Russians were really attacked for their activities in eastern Ukraine but the Trump administration is really sending mixed signals,” he said.

“The big fear is that Trump may withdraw support for the sanctions against Russia and that could turn a chain reaction where Greece, Italy and other EU members may also withdraw support.”

{{The NATO factor}}

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is planning a referendum on whether Ukraine should join the NATO alliance given polls that show 54 percent of Ukrainians now favour such a move, Germany’s Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain reported on Thursday.

“Four years ago, only 16 percent (of the Ukrainian people) favoured Ukraine’s entry into NATO. Now it’s 54 percent,” the media group quoted Poroshenko as saying in an interview.

“As president, I am guided by the views of my people, and I will hold a referendum on the issue of NATO membership.”

He vowed to “do all I can to achieve membership in the transatlantic alliance” if the people voted in favour.

NATO and Ukraine have had a close relationship since the early 1990s, and their ties are one of the “most substantial” of NATO’s partnerships, according to the alliance’s website.

However, any move by NATO to admit Ukraine would spark tensions with Russia, which says NATO already violated earlier promises by admitting Poland and other eastern European countries in the 1990s.

Poroshenko also predicted it would not take long until Ukraine fulfilled the entry criteria to join the European Union.

He said Kiev had reduced its budget deficit and inflation, and had taken important steps to reduce corruption.

The EU last year spelled out limits to a landmark cooperation agreement with Ukraine to address Dutch concerns, but said the deal did not make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership.

{US national security adviser signals toughening stance on Tehran after Iran insists tests did not breach nuclear accord.}

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser has signalled a toughening US stance on Iran, condemning a recent missile test and declaring Washington was “officially putting Iran on notice”.

In his first public remarks since taking office, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn accused former president Barack Obama’s administration on Wednesday of having “failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions”.

Citing a recent missile test and the actions of Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen, Flynn said on Wednesday that “Iran is now feeling emboldened”.

“As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,” he said without elaborating.

Both Trump and Flynn have been vocal opponents of an international deal that saw Iran curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iran confirmed that it carried out a new missile test, but insisted that it did not breach Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers or a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement.

Hossein Dehghan, Iran’s defence minister, on Wednesday defended Sunday’s test after the US called an urgent UN Security meeting to discuss the issue.

“The recent test was in line with our plans and we will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defence affairs,” Dehghan said, according to the Tasnim news agency.

“The test did not violate the nuclear deal or the [UN] resolution 2231,” he said.

On Tuesday, Javad Zarif, foreign minister, affirmed that Iran’s missile tests do not involve rockets with nuclear warheads and are not part of the historic deal signed two years ago by world powers, but stopped short of confirming the test.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Trita Parsi, of the National Iranian American Council, said that even though the Iranians are not violating both the deal and the UN resolution, doing the test was “clearly provocative”.

“It was meant to test the new Trump administration,” he said. “I don’t think that is particularly a good idea. Because this is an administration that seems to be ideologically opposed to the very concept of de-escalation.”

But Parsi also said that the White House statement is “very dangerous”.

“What started off as bluster may very quickly turn into a real war.”

{{‘Deterrence against hostile enemies’}}

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said a ballistic missile test was carried out on Sunday from a site near Semnan, east of Tehran, according to the Reuters news agency.

The medium-range ballistic missile reportedly exploded after 1,010km, the official said, adding that the last time this type of device was test-launched was in July 2016.

The new US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called the test “unacceptable”, after Tuesday’s emergency session.

The test drew wide condemnation as many feared it could be in violation of the UN resolution which was part of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Meanwhile, some 220 Iranian members of parliament reaffirmed support for Tehran’s missile programme, calling international condemnation of the tests “illogical”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is against weapons of mass destruction, so its missile capability is the only available deterrence against enemy hostility,” MPs said in a statement carried on state media on Wednesday.

The state news agency IRNA quoted Ali Shamkhani, head of Iran’s National Security Council, as saying Iran would not seek “permission from any country or international organisation for development of our conventional defensive capability”.

During the US election campaign, President Donald Trump branded the nuclear agreement “the worst deal ever negotiated”, telling voters that he would either rip it up or seek a better deal.

{Bloc decries Israeli plans for thousands of new settler homes on occupied Palestinian land.}

Israel’s recent stream of announcements that it will build thousands of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank “marks a very worrying trend” and risks making a two-state solution impossible, according to the European Union.

Federica Mogherini, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, released on Wednesday a strongly worded statement decrying continued settlement expansion, which she noted is “illegal under international law”.

The EU “deeply regrets that Israel is proceeding with this, despite the continuous serious international concern and objections, which have been constantly raised at all levels,” she said.

On Tuesday, Israel announced the construction of 3,000 settlement homes in the West Bank, the fourth such announcement in the less than two weeks since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

Since Trump came to power, Israel has approved the construction of 566 housing units in three settlement areas of occupied East Jerusalem and announced the building of 2,502 more in the West Bank.

On Thursday last week, Israeli officials gave final approval for 153 settler homes in East Jerusalem.

“Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have decided to authorise the construction of 3,000 new housing units in Judea-Samaria,” the defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, using the term Israel uses for the West Bank, a Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967.

Expansion plans had been frozen under pressure from the previous US administration of President Barack Obama, which had warned that settlements could derail hopes of a negotiated two-state solution.

Trump, however, has pledged strong support for Israel, and Netanyahu’s government has moved quickly to take advantage.

“We are building and we will continue building,” Netanyahu said last week, referring to settlement approvals.

The prime minister has said he sees the Trump presidency as offering “significant opportunities” after facing “huge pressures” from Obama on Iran and settlements.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The international community views them as a major obstacle to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

More than a half million Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“Since the start of 2017, the Israeli authorities have made clear that they plan to accelerate the construction of illegal settlement homes and seize further Palestinian territory in flagrant violation of international law,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The flurry of recent announcements signals that the Israeli government, emboldened by the Trump administration, feels no need to hide its brazen violations of the rights of the occupied Palestinian population.”