Wanderlust

Tag: Mike Pompeo

  • Lindsey Graham turns on Pompeo over Khashoggi murder

    Video Senators rebuke ‘blind’ Pompeo

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  • Lindsey Graham turns on Pompeo over Khashoggi homicide

    Video Senators activate ‘willfully blind’ Pompeo

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  • Mike Pompeo seeks allied unity in dealing with North Korea

    America’s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapo

    TOKYO (AP) — America’s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

    On the eve of his fourth visit to North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to try to unify the countries’ positions as he looks to arrange a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and chart a path toward denuclearization.

    Japan has been wary of Trump’s initiative, fearing it could affect its long-standing security relationship with the U.S.

    Pompeo said it was important to hear from the Japanese leader “so we have a fully coordinated and unified view.” Pompeo also pledged that during his meeting with Kim on Sunday, he would raise the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

    Pompeo later planned stops in South Korea and China to review the negotiations.

    “It is important for us to hear from you as I travel to Pyongyang to make sure that we are fully in sync with respect to missile programs, (chemical and biological weapons) programs,” Pompeo told Abe. “We will bring up the issue of the abductees as well and then we will share with you how we hope to proceed when we are in Pyongyang tomorrow.”

    Trump is pressing to meet with Kim for a second time after their June summit in Singapore produced a vague agreement on denuclearization with few, if any, specifics. Despite the historic meeting, the two sides are deadlocked over how to achieve that goal. Trump canceled Pompeo’s initial planned return to North Korea last month.

    In contrast with South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in has been at the forefront of encouraging Trump’s rapprochement with the North, Japan has been decidedly cautious, insisting its interests and concerns be addressed.

    Abe did not speak of differences but highlighted the importance of demonstrating to the world that the U.S.-Japan alliance is “more robust than ever” and stressing the importance of “thorough coordination” with Washington on all aspects of North Korea policy.

    Pompeo has repeatedly refused to discuss details of negotiations, including a U.S. position on North Korea’s demand for a declared end to the Korean War and a proposal from Seoul for such a declaration to be accompanied by a shutdown of the North’s main known nuclear facility.

    The U.S. and Japan have pushed for the North to compile and turn over a detailed list of its nuclear sites to be dismantled as a next step in the process; the North has rejected that.

    Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kano, said the accounting continues to be a priority for his country.

    “Disclosing all nuclear inventories is the first step toward denuclearization,” he told reporters after Pompeo wrapped up his meeting in Tokyo.

    Kono also said he and Pompeo didn’t go into details of a possible war-end declaration because it’s premature while there is virtually no progress in denuclearization. “We are not even talking about whether to do it or not,” he said. “It’s not an issue that we are even considering.”

    Many believe such a declaration could reinforce North Korea’s demands for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from South Korea and Japan.

    While traveling to Asia, Pompeo said his mission was to “make sure that we understand what each side is truly trying to achieve … and how we can deliver against the commitments that were made” in Singapore. He said they would develop options, if not finalize, the location and timing of a second Trump-Kim summit.

    He has also distanced himself from an earlier stated goal of achieving North Korea’s nuclear weapons abandonment by the end of Trump’s term in January 2021.

    Since the effort got underway with a secret visit to the North by then-CIA chief Pompeo in April, there has been only limited progress.

    North Korea so far has suspended nuclear and missile tests, freed three American prisoners and dismantled parts of a missile engine facility and tunnel entrances at a nuclear test site. It has not taken any steps to halt nuclear weapons or missile development.

    The North also has accused Washington of making “unilateral and gangster-like” demands on denuclearization and insisted that sanctions should be lifted before any progress in nuclear talks. U.S. officials have thus far said sanctions will remain in place until the North’s denuclearization is fully verified.

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    AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

  • North Korean media silent on Mike Pompeo meeting in New York

    Domestic political pressure on Kim Jong-un to move slowly in denuclearization talks with the U.S. is so intense that North Korean state media is avoiding any mention of the high-level meeting the nati

    Domestic political pressure on Kim Jong-un to move slowly in denuclearization talks with the U.S. is so intense that North Korean state media is avoiding any mention of the high-level meeting the nation’s foreign minister had with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week in New York.

    Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of Mr. Kim’s ruling Workers’ Party, ran a report Tuesday featuring a long list of meetings Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho had with others on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly — including with Chinese, Russian, Swiss, Kazakh, Venezuelan and other officials.

    But, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the Rodong report neglected to point out Mr. Ri’s direct talks with Mr. Pompeo on Sept. 26, after which the secretary of state revealed that he had accepted an invitation to personally visit to Pyongyang in the weeks ahead to plan for a second summit between President Trump and Mr. Kim.

    The North Korean state newspaper also avoided any mention of talks that Mr. Ri had in New York with Taro Kono, the foreign minister of Japan, a close ally in the Trump administration’s ongoing push to get the Kim regime to abandon its nuclear weapons.

    Analysts say the denuclearization issue is sensitive for the regime because Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather spent decades staking their own legacies on developing the North Korean nuclear program.

    That Mr. Kim might now destroy the program — even if he did so in exchange for sanctions relief — is apparently deemed so risky by the 35-year-old dictator’s advisers that they’re downplaying progress the ongoing denuclearization talks.

    After stalling during the late summer, the talks have appeared to gain fresh momentum in recent weeks, following a three-day, mid-September summit in Pyongyang between Mr. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

    Mr. Pompeo wrote on Twitter last week that he’d had a “very positive” subsequent meeting with Mr. Ri in New York.

  • Trump bid to crush Iran’s oil exports moves forward after Pompeo discusses issue with India

    The Trump administration’s drive to crush Iran’s oil exports has moved forward after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will help India to reduce its dependence on crude imports from the I

    The Trump administration’s drive to crush Iran’s oil exports has moved forward after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will help India reduce its dependence on crude imports from the Islamic Republic.

    “We will consider waivers where appropriate,” Mr. Pompeo said after meeting with Indian officials in New Delhi. “But it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed.”

    Washington has been re-imposing economic penalties on Tehran since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal in May.

    In a bid to slash Iranian oil experts to zero, U.S. sanctions on Iranian petroleum are scheduled to start in November. Mr. Trump has warned that anyone who does not cut their economic ties to Iran will “risk severe consequences.”

    The strategy has caused problems for India, the world’s third-biggest energy consumer after the U.S. and China, which imports roughly 80 percent of its oil, much of it from Iran.

    Energy analysts predict that India’s post-sanctions import plans will have a major impact on how much Iranian exports drop in the coming months.

    While Washington’s forceful sanctions approach has been working on many fronts — scores of major international companies have ended their business with Tehran — India and China have been working up agreements to sidestep the penalties by importing Iranian oil from Iranian tankers.

    Reports from Reuters say Tehran has offered almost free shipping and also provided insurance, an issue because of the non-availability of coverage by Western insurers because of the re-imposed sanctions.

    The oil issue emerged front and center on Thursday in New Delhi when Mr. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis gathered for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

    Afterward, Mr. Pompeo said U.S. oil exports offered a solution for some countries cutting ties with Iran.

    “It takes a little bit of time to unwind, and we’ll work with them, I am sure, to find an outcome that makes sense,” he said, according to a State Department transcript.

    “And from whence they purchase the other crude oil, we’re happy to see if it’s American products that are able to deliver for them,” Mr. Pompeo added. “I think that’d be a great outcome.”

    While Mr. Swaraj called the summit fruitful, he provided no details about India’s oil plans.

    The news caused reaction from Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, who was visiting India to discuss establishing a banking workaround to U.S. sanctions.

    When asked about Mr. Pompeo’s proposals, Mr. Akhoundi dismissed Washington.

    “India and Iran’s relationship is essential for region and we are looking at ways to work together,” he said. “The U.S. is an outsider in the region, so the insiders should come together and continue their friendship.”

  • Trump accuses China of stalling growth with North Korea

    Donald Trump Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption ‘It’s all China’s fault’ says Trump

    US President Donald Trump has lashed out at China for undermining its paintings with North Korea, as complaint over development on denuclearisation mounts.

    In a sequence of tweets he additionally said the united states can not be spending on battle games with South Korea, but when it did restart them they would be “bigger than ever”.

    The U.s. referred to as a halt to the military workout routines which routinely infuriate Pyongyang after landmark talks in June.

    However days in the past his own defence secretary said military workouts may continue.

    the continuing debate in regards to the struggle games comes as many observers say North Korea is not shifting speedy sufficient to dismantle nuclear or rocket websites following the summit between Mr Trump and North Korean chief Kim Jong-un in June.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Downside solved – in step with Mr Trump after his June summit with Kim Jong-un N Korea ‘making missiles’ regardless of US thaw Tears and pleasure as Korean households reunite

    Simply days in the past, Washington known as off a trip to North Korea by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the president arguing that insufficient development have been made in dismantling the North’s nuclear programme.

    within the recent observation released on Twitter, Mr Trump says North Korea was once “under super power from China because of our top trade disputes with the Chinese Language government”.

    Skip Twitter submit by means of @realDonaldTrump

    STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

    President Donald J. Trump feels strongly that North Korea is below super force from China as a result of our leading business disputes with the Chinese Language Executive. At The related time, we also understand that China is offering North Korea with…

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018

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    End of Twitter submit through @realDonaldTrump

    It additionally accuses Beijing of offering North Korea with “really extensive support,” suggesting Chinese assist used to be softening the blow of international sanctions on the regime in Pyongyang.

    “This isn’t helpful!” Mr Trump’s tweet says.

    The U.s. president is going on to insist his non-public courting with Kim Jong-un remained “an overly just right and heat one” and that hence there has been no explanation why to restart the “warfare games” with the South.

    However he added that if they did restart, the workouts can be “bigger than ever”.

    Referring again to the industry dispute with Beijing, Mr Trump says he is still optimistic it may well be resolved by himself and China’s “great President Xi Jinping”.

    China to respond ‘resolutely’ to US tariffs Why the us-China industry dispute has mavens concerned

  • US North Korea seek advice from: China says Trump grievance is ‘irresponsible’

    Trump Kim Image copyright Reuters Image caption Downside solved – according to Mr Trump after his June summit with Kim Jong-un

    China has stated it’s “irresponsible” of President Trump to signify it was once no longer putting sufficient drive on North Korea over its nuclear programme.

    Mr Trump had tweeted that China used to be “not helping” because of industry tensions with the united states.

    A Chinese Language international ministry spokesman mentioned this was “contrary to fundamental facts” and China used to be “seriously involved”.

    On Thursday Mr Trump called off US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s deliberate trip to North Korea.

    He said that inadequate progress used to be being made in dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

    After his summit with the North Korean chief in June, Mr Trump stated the country was once now not a nuclear danger.

    But considering the fact that then there had been a few reports that it’s failing to dismantle its nuclear amenities.

    considered one of essentially the most latest warnings came from unnamed US officers, who instructed the Washington Post that North Korea looked as if it would be development new intercontinental ballistic missiles.

    Is North Korea sticking with its nukes? who are Kim Jong-un’s working bodyguards? Tears and pleasure as Korean families reunite

    The UN’s nuclear company (IAEA) has also said North Korea is continuous with its nuclear programme.

    Meanwhile the second in a new series of circle of relatives reunions for North and South Koreans separated by way of the struggle SIXTY FIVE years ago has taken position in a North Korean vacationer hotel.

    Some 326 South Koreans from EIGHTY ONE families met their lengthy-misplaced family, South Korea’s Yonhap news company reported.

    What is the united states-China industry factor?

    Beijing is Pyongyang’s simplest significant ally and Washington’s strongest long-time period strategic rival within the region.

    The powers are lately embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff conflict after Mr Trump complained about the measurement of the united states industry deficit with China and what Washington sees as different unfair business practices.

    Each side has now imposed 25% tariffs on a complete of $50bn of one every other’s goods.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption North Korea’s Mr Kim (L) visited China’s Xi Jinping (R) after his summit with Mr Trump

    Alternatively, most effective 3 days in the past Mr Trump mentioned China were a “big help on North Korea”.

    US-China business row: What has happened to this point? Six tactics China may retaliate in a industry war China’s role within the Trump-Kim talks

    North Korean chief Kim Jong-un has visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping several occasions this 12 months, including a trip in a while after his summit with Mr Trump.

    What is Mr Trump’s recent line?

    Mr Pompeo used to be because of head to Pyongyang next week along with his newly appointed unique envoy for North Korea – Stephen Biegun, a retiring Ford executive.

    it might were the secretary of state’s fourth shuttle, though he was once not anticipated to satisfy Mr Kim.

    Mr Pompeo might nonetheless make any other commute though.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption Mike Pompeo right through his final consult with in July

    However there had been ups and downs in the Trump-North Korea relationship for the reason that then.

    After a visit by means of Mr Pompeo in July, North Korea condemned his “gangster-like demands”, only for another travel to be introduced, albeit now cancelled.

    And the summit itself was referred to as off in May – Mr Trump bringing up Pyongyang’s “open hostility” – just for it to take place in spite of everything.

    the us has made transparent that it desires to see an finish to the North’s nuclear activities prior to it is going to consider lifting economic sanctions.

    Symbol copyright EPA Symbol caption These sisters living in North and South Korea have been reunited after greater than six decades

    The summit was once noticed as conceivable turning element after a ratcheting up of tensions.

    North Korea had performed a sixth nuclear bomb take a look at in September remaining 12 months and boasted of its ability to launch a missile on the United States Of America.

  • Turkey issues retaliatory price lists on US imports

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption President Erdogan has accused the united states of seeking to “stab Turkey in the again”

    Turkey has sharply raised tariffs on US imports, together with passenger cars, alcohol and tobacco.

    A decree signed by way of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the tariffs on vehicles to A HUNDRED AND TWENTY%, on alcoholic drinks to ONE HUNDRED FORTY% and on leaf tobacco to 60%.

    The US doubled price lists final week over Turkey’s refusal to extradite a US pastor who is imprisoned there.

    Turkey’s weakened forex, the lira, plunged by greater than 20% in response to these US sanctions.

    Explaining the brand new price lists, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay mentioned the rises were ordered “throughout the framework of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious attacks on our economic system through the u.s. administration”.

    Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Symbol caption US President Donald Trump has called pastor Andrew Brunson “an blameless man of religion”

    An evangelical from North Carolina, he has been held in Turkey for almost two years over alleged hyperlinks to the outlawed Kurdistan Employees Birthday Celebration and the Gulenist movement, which Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016.

    On Wednesday a Turkish court docket rejected his recent attract be launched from area arrest. a better courtroom continues to be to rule, his legal professional informed Reuters.

    White Area press secretary Sarah Sanders stated the united states had seen “no proof that Pastor Brunson has performed anything else fallacious”.

    Mr Brunson has denied fees of espionage, but faces as much as 35 years in jail if found in charge.

  • Trump and Rouhani industry offended threats

    Men work inside an uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, Iran (30 March 2005) Symbol copyright Getty Photographs Image caption Iran limited its delicate nuclear activities in alternate for sanctions reduction

    US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have traded antagonistic warnings, amid emerging tensions between the two countries.

    Mr Trump tweeted that Iran “will endure effects the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered ahead of” if it threatened the us.

    Mr Rouhani in advance said that battle with Iran can be “the mother of all wars”.

    In Might, the us left a deal which curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in go back for the lifting of world sanctions.

    Iran faces as much as its options who’re the winners and losers?

    Washington is now re-implementing the sanctions, despite objections from the uk, France, China, Russia and Germany, who all signed the 2015 settlement.

    Skip Twitter post by way of @realDonaldTrump

    To Iranian President Rouhani: BY NO MEANS, EVER THREATEN THE U.S. AGAIN OR YOU WILL UNDERGO CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW ALL THROUGH HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED SOONER THAN. WE ARE NO LONGER A RUSTIC THAT WILL STAND IN YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAREFUL!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

    File

    Finish of Twitter publish by @realDonaldTrump

    In a separate building on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated the Iranian regime “resembles the mafia more than a government”.

    Addressing a group of Iranian Americans in California, Mr Pompeo denounced Mr Rouhani and Iranian Overseas Minister Javad Zarif, who negotiated the nuclear deal, as “merely polished front males for the ayatollahs’ international con artistry”.

    Mr Pompeo mentioned he wanted to try to stop countries importing Iranian oil by November as part of persisted power on Tehran.

    Is there a Plan B? Why Trump ditched the deal

    Why did the united states withdraw?

    In Would Possibly, Mr Trump called the nuclear accord – or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Motion (JCPOA) because it is formally recognized – a “terrible, one-sided deal that are meant to have never, ever been made”.

    Media playback is unsupported in your tool

    Media captionPeople in the Iran-aligned suburbs of Beirut supply their reaction to US withdrawal from the nuclear deal

    Mr Trump alleged that the deal didn’t prohibit Iran’s “destabilising actions” within the region enough, and will now not stumble on or save you any breaking of the phrases of the deal.

    what’s the nuclear accord? Ache for some of Europe’s largest firms Has Iran’s economic system been underneath the deal?

    Iran insists its nuclear programme is completely peaceful, and its compliance with the deal has been established via the World Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has stated Iran is honouring its commitments.

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  • Seoul: ‘U.S., North Korea in energy struggle of wrestling game’

    SEOUL, July 9 (UPI) — South Korea’s presidential office said the Usa and North Korea are in an influence fight by which neither want to provide in, regarding the cut up reactions proven via each side after the prime-stage talks on denuclearization in Pyongyang.

    “We see at it as an influence combat the place each side try to win an advantageous position as the negotiation procedure proceeds,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, South Korea’s presidential office spokesperson stated all over a news briefing on Monday, evaluating the U.S.-North negotiation to a Korean conventional wrestling recreation, Joongang Ilbo pronounced.

    “What appears at the floor might look competitive reactions.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea’s most sensible denuclearization negotiator Kim Yong-chol met in Pyongyang for his or her -day talks as a observe-up to the U.S.-North summit in Singapore.

    Pompeo called the meeting with North Korean negotiators “very efficient” and mentioned they discussed the timeline and declaration of the North’s nuclear and missile amenities, in line with Yonhap.

    North Korea denounced a U.S. way to the denuclearization negotiation within the remark launched through a foreign minister spokesperson through its state media KCNA.

    “The U.S. facet got here up only with its unilateral and gangster-like call for for denuclearization just calling for CVID, announcement and verification, all of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks,” the remark stated.

    CVID stands for whole, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North Korea’s nuclear software, the lengthy-status objective for North’s nuclear disarmament.

    Pompeo hit again announcing: “If the ones requests had been gangster-like, the world is a gangster,” on the news conference in Tokyo with Japanese and South Korean international ministers on Sunday.

    South Korea’s presidential place of business viewed the meeting as the first operating-level talks held after the Singapore summit the place negotiators of each side brazenly talked about what they wanted.

    “the 2-day assembly lasted a complete of 9 hours,” said Kim. “that is the primary time they freely shared what they sought after.”

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in mentioned he sees the continued U.S.-North negotiation on denuclearization “certain and constructive” in his meeting with Indian Exterior Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday, Yonhap mentioned. Moon is on a state talk over with to India.

    Moon acted as a mediator between the countries within the run-as much as the Singapore summit on June 12.