All posts tagged: United States International Relations

Cambodia’s Leader Pardons Top Opposition Politician Kem Sokha

Cambodia’s Leader Pardons Top Opposition Politician Kem Sokha

Published by Sam Flores

Cambodia’s strongman, Hun Sen, pardoned the country’s most prominent opposition politician, Kem Sokha, on Monday, in a move that might be intended to ease the kingdom’s strained relationship with the West and strengthen the legitimacy of his son’s government. The statement on Mr. Kem Sokha’s release from house arrest was first announced by Mr. Hun Sen and then by his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, on Monday. Mr. Kem Sokha’s lawyer confirmed it but added that his client remained barred from politics and would not be allowed to leave the country. The surprise release of one of Cambodia’s highest-profile political prisoners stunned many in the country. It came a month after an appeals court upheld his conviction on a charge of treason, which carried a sentence of 27 years of house arrest. “This is the beginning,” said Pheng Heng, Mr. Kem Sokha’s lawyer. He added that Mr. Hun Sen and Mr. Kem Sokha had spoken with each other before the pardon was granted and that there would be further political discussions on restoring Mr. Kem …

Rubio Rebukes Hezbollah Chief Over Call for Lebanese to ‘Take to the Streets’

Rubio Rebukes Hezbollah Chief Over Call for Lebanese to ‘Take to the Streets’

Published by Sam Flores

The leader of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, on Sunday welcomed a possible deal between Iran and the United States to end their war. But he rejected direct talks between Israel and Lebanon and called for the Lebanese people to take to the streets. “We hope that a full agreement to cease hostilities will be reached and that this agreement will include us,” Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, said in a speech. At the same time, Mr. Qassem condemned the Lebanese government for participating in direct negotiations with Israel, brokered by the United States, to end the fighting in Lebanon. Those talks, he said, benefit only Israel. “The people have the right to take to the streets and bring down the government in confronting the American-Israeli project,” Mr. Qassem said. He also rejected the Lebanese government’s calls for Hezbollah to disarm as part of any peace agreement. The speech drew the ire of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms Hezbollah’s reckless call to overthrow Lebanon’s democratically elected government,” …

Rubio Says Details on Iran Nuclear Program Still to Be Negotiated

Rubio Says Details on Iran Nuclear Program Still to Be Negotiated

Published by Sam Flores

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was prepared to enter “into very serious talks” about Iran’s nuclear program if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that the Trump administration was prepared to accept an interim agreement that didn’t immediately take away Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons. “You can’t do a nuclear thing in 72 hours on the back of a napkin,” Mr. Rubio said in a brief interview Sunday during his visit to New Delhi. “The straits have to be immediately reopened, and then we will enter, under agreed-to parameters, into very serious talks about enrichment, about the highly enriched uranium and about their pledge to never have nuclear weapons.” Neither the United States nor Iran has released details publicly, but on Sunday a U.S. official said there was an agreement in principle to a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz with a commitment from Iran to dispose of their highly enriched uranium. Iran has not commented publicly, nor confirmed its stance on its stockpile of enriched uranium. …

These Are 5 of the Main Issues to Be Resolved in an Iran-U.S. Peace Deal

These Are 5 of the Main Issues to Be Resolved in an Iran-U.S. Peace Deal

Published by Sam Flores

The United States and Iran have signaled that they are moving closer to a deal to end the war in the Middle East. But neither country has released a copy of the possible deal and as of Sunday afternoon, it remained unclear exactly what they had agreed to — or if they had agreed to much at all. In interviews, American and Iranian officials described basic elements of a deal differently. Notably, they portrayed discussions about the future of the nuclear program — and Iran’s existing stockpiles of highly enriched uranium — in divergent terms. Here are five of the main issues at stake, and the positions each side has revealed at this point. 1. Iran’s Nuclear Program President Trump has repeatedly said Iran must give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which the United States and Israel fear could be used to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has resisted. One big question is what Iran would do with its existing stockpile of enriched uranium. It has about 970 pounds of uranium enriched to …

Senate Republicans Cast Doubt on a Potential Peace Deal With Iran

Senate Republicans Cast Doubt on a Potential Peace Deal With Iran

Published by Sam Flores

Senate Republicans cast doubt on the viability of a potential peace deal between the United States and Iran over the weekend as President Trump doubled down in support of his administration’s negotiations to end the nearly three-month-old war. U.S. and Iranian officials have described an emerging framework that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and in which, U.S. officials say, Iran would commit to disposing of its highly enriched uranium. Iranian officials have also said that nuclear matters would be negotiated within 30 to 60 days. “It doesn’t make too much sense to me,” Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Mr. Tillis called the Iranians’ commitment to reopening the Strait of Hormuz “questionable” without a finalized peace deal, adding that “there are a lot of things that need to be explained.” On Saturday, Senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote on social media that a “60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would …

Fate of War in Lebanon Rests Mostly With Outside Powers

Fate of War in Lebanon Rests Mostly With Outside Powers

Published by Sam Flores

A day after President Trump announced a potential deal with Iran, Lebanon found itself in a familiar position — waiting on outside powers to determine whether the latest war to devastate the country was drawing to an end. After Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, fired on Israel in March in solidarity with its patron, the country was dragged into a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. A U.S.-brokered cease-fire took effect on April 17, but Israel and Hezbollah have continued to clash, with each side accusing the other of violating the truce. The fighting has escalated in recent weeks, exposing the limits of the cease-fire and stoking fears that the conflict could turn into yet another full-blown war. On Sunday, Lebanon hoped that the agreement announced by Mr. Trump could bring a degree of calm after months of intense upheaval. While the terms of the agreement are murky, three senior Iranian officials told The New York Times that it would halt the fighting on all fronts, including …

Iran Projects Victory in Potential Deal With Washington

Iran Projects Victory in Potential Deal With Washington

Published by Sam Flores

As President Trump and regional diplomats began to herald the possibility of a deal with Iran that could end the war, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry responded with his version of a history lesson. Esmail Baghaei, the spokesman, posted an image on social media of a famous relief carved into an archaeological site in Iran that portrays a Roman emperor bowing in submission to a king of the Sassanians, an ancient Iranian empire. “In the Roman mind, Rome was the undisputed center of the world,” Mr. Baghaei wrote, in an apparent reference to the political and military might of Washington today. “The Iranians shattered that illusion.” Despite the military and economic battering Iran has endured during its war with the United States and Israel, its leaders are casting the reported terms of a possible preliminary agreement with Washington as a victory. On Sunday, a senior U.S. official said that the United States and Iran had agreed to a preliminary deal that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and see Iran dispose of …

Rubio Says U.S.-India Ties Are Strong, Despite Fury Over Trump’s Actions

Rubio Says U.S.-India Ties Are Strong, Despite Fury Over Trump’s Actions

Published by Sam Flores

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the Trump administration remained committed to a strategic partnership with India, apparently trying to defuse tensions from President Trump’s aggressive actions in the past year against India and Indians living in the United States. “The U.S.-India relationship has not lost any momentum,” he said in a news conference in New Delhi on the second day of a four-day trip to India. “The relationship continues to be strong.” Mr. Rubio, who has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other officials on the trip, said the United States wants to continue working with India on trade and investment in advanced technologies. And he said Mr. Trump’s efforts to impose tariffs on Indian imports to the United States — a 50 percent in initial salvos last summer — were not aimed at India specifically but were part of a global effort to create better balances of trade for the United States. The tariffs are a tax paid by American companies that import goods from India. “There’s a huge …

Iran Agreed to Give Up Enriched Uranium in Deal Announced by Trump, U.S. Officials Say

Iran Agreed to Give Up Enriched Uranium in Deal Announced by Trump, U.S. Officials Say

Published by Sam Flores

One key element of the proposed agreement between Iran and the United States is an apparent commitment by Tehran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, according to two U.S. officials. White House officials did not return requests for comment. President Trump said on Saturday that the United States was close to reaching an agreement with Iran toward ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But he provided no details, and it was not clear what hurdles might remain to closing a deal. U.S. officials said that the proposal did not settle the issue of precisely how Iran would give up its stockpile, putting off the details for a coming round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program. But a general statement that Iran will commit to doing so, a longtime goal of the United States, is critical to the deal — especially if the overall agreement is greeted with skepticism by Republicans on Capitol Hill. Iran has made no public statements on the agreement that Mr. Trump announced. Iran originally balked …

How the Cuba Fuel Crisis Is Affecting Everyday Life

How the Cuba Fuel Crisis Is Affecting Everyday Life

Published by Sam Flores

Cuba is rapidly running out of fuel. For nearly three months, the United States has blocked any significant oil shipments from reaching the island, leaving an already struggling economy in a state of crisis. We asked Cubans how the fuel shortages have upended their lives. 19 Cubans on What It’s Like to Live Without Fuel In some parts of Cuba, life has simply come to a halt. The first effective blockade since the Cuban missile crisis is pushing the Caribbean nation toward a humanitarian breaking point. As a result, Cubans are struggling to navigate the most basic aspects of daily life, from commuting to work to receiving medical care. Even the arrival of a Russian oil tanker this week — the first allowed by the United States since the blockade began — will buy the island only a few weeks before fuel reserves run out, analysts say. We wanted to know how these changes are affecting life in Cuba. In February, we asked people across the island to tell us. I go only to nearby …