New leak claims Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal 'to spite Obama' - BBC News

Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal to spite Barack Obama, according to a leaked memo written by the UK's former ambassador in the US.

Sir Kim Darroch described the move as an act of "diplomatic vandalism", according to the Mail on Sunday.

The paper says the memo was written after the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appealed to the US in 2018 to stick with the nuclear deal.

The latest leak came despite the Met Police warning against publication.

The first memos criticising President Trump's administration, which emerged a week ago, prompted a furious reaction from the US president and resulted in Sir Kim resigning from his role.

What have we learnt from the latest leak?

The Mail on Sunday reports that Sir Kim wrote to Mr Johnson informing him Republican President Trump appeared to be abandoning the nuclear deal for "personality reasons" - because the pact had been agreed by his Democrat predecessor, Barack Obama.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

However, President Trump said he did not think that the deal went far enough in curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions and reinstated US sanctions after withdrawing from the deal in May 2018.

The British ambassador's memo is said to have highlighted splits amongst US presidential advisors; he wrote that the White House did not have a "day-to-day" strategy of how to proceed following withdrawal from the deal.

According to the paper, in his memo to Mr Johnson, Sir Kim wrote: "The outcome illustrated the paradox of this White House: you got exceptional access, seeing everyone short of the president; but on the substance, the administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons - it was Obama's deal.

"Moreover, they can't articulate any 'day-after' strategy; and contacts with State Department this morning suggest no sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, whether in Europe or the region."

Why did the police warn the media?

Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu warned media organisations against publishing leaked government documents, saying it "could be a criminal matter".

His comments came as a criminal investigation was launched into the initial leak of Sir Kim's emails.

• What is the Official Secrets Act?
• Met Police criticised over press leak warning

The warning prompted a backlash from newspaper editors and MPs on Saturday, defending the freedom of the press.

The Met Police then released a second statement making clear journalists who released further details of the former ambassador's communications could be in breach of the Official Secrets Act, in which case there is no public interest defence in law.

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The Mail on Sunday said it was in the public interest to publish the memos.

The paper argued that the most recently published emails revealed "important information" on the UK's attempts to stop President Trump abandoning the Iran nuclear deal.

A spokesman said: "What could be more in the public interest than a better understanding of how this position was reached, which may have serious consequences for world peace?"

In response, a Foreign Office spokesman called it a "totally unacceptable leak" of "sensitive material" and called for the source of the leak to "face the consequences of their actions".

He added that it was "not news" that the UK and US differ in their approach to preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

What was the fallout from the initial leak?

The first leaked emails saw Sir Kim, the then UK ambassador, refer to the Trump administration as "clumsy and inept".

The US president responded by calling Sir Kim as "a very stupid guy", adding that he would no longer deal with him

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Sir Kim stepped down as US ambassador on Wednesday, saying it was "impossible" for him to continue in the role.

Tory leadership candidate Boris Johnson faced strong criticism for failing to fully support the former ambassador during a TV debate last week.

The government have also launched an internal Whitehall inquiry into the leak.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48978484

2019-07-14 09:16:52Z
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Hong Kong protesters resume chorus of opposition to extradition bill - Reuters

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands rallied in Hong Kong for a second day on Sunday, in an area popular with mainland Chinese shoppers, as deep-seated anger and frustration at the government’s handling of an extradition bill refuses to dissipate.

Anti-extradition bill protesters march at Sha Tin District of East New Territories, Hong Kong, China July 14, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Demonstrators marched in heat of about 32 degrees Celsius (89.6°F) in Sha Tin, a town between Hong Kong island and the border with China that has previously been a battleground for those upset by the flood of Chinese day-trippers.

“I never missed a march so far since June,” said a 69-year-old man who gave only his surname, Chen, referring to a wave of protests that has drawn millions to the streets of the Asian financial hub, plunging it into turmoil.

“I support the youngsters, they have done something we haven’t done. There is nothing we can do to help them, but come out and march to show our appreciation and support.”

A few protesters waved British and American flags, with banners calling for independence for Hong Kong flying from makeshift flagpoles. Some marchers beat drums and others carried banners that read, “Free Hong Kong.”

Chants of “Carrie Lam go to hell,” rang through the crowd, referring to the city’s embattled leader.

The protests have fueled the former British colony’s biggest political crisis since China regained control of Hong Kong in 1997 and pose a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.

The focus of the rallies has veered occasionally from the extradition bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, to broader issues fuelling tension between Hong Kong people and mainland Chinese.

On Saturday, a largely peaceful demonstration in a town close to the Chinese border turned violent, as protesters hurled umbrellas and hardhats at police, who retaliated by swinging batons and firing pepper spray.

Critics see the now-suspended bill as a threat to the rule of law in Hong Kong. Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said it is “dead”, but opponents say they will settle for nothing short of the bill’s formal withdrawal.

They are also demanding that Lam step down and seeking an independent investigation into complaints of police brutality.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule 22 years ago under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows its people freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including the liberty to protest and an independent judiciary.

Beijing denies interfering in Hong Kong affairs, but many residents worry about what they see as an erosion of those freedoms and a relentless march toward mainland control.

More than 23.6 million mainland Chinese visited Hong Kong in the first five months of this year, government data show, up 17.5% from a year earlier, and equivalent to at least three times Hong Kong’s population of 7.4 million.

Slideshow (2 Images)

The government condemned violent acts during Saturday’s protests against so-called “parallel traders” from the mainland who buy goods in bulk in Hong Kong, to carry into China for profit.

It said that during the last 18 months it had arrested 126 mainland visitors suspected of contravening the terms of their stay by engaging in parallel trading, and barred about 5,000 mainland Chinese also suspected of involvement.

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of journalists joined a silent march to demand better treatment from police at protests.

Reporting by Donny Kwok and Felix Tam; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-07-14 06:16:00Z
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New leak claims Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal 'to spite Obama' - BBC News

Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal to spite Barack Obama, according to a leaked memo written by the UK's former ambassador to the US.

Sir Kim Darroch described the move as an act of "diplomatic vandalism", according to the Mail on Sunday.

The paper says the memo was written after the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appealed to the US in 2018 to stick with the nuclear deal.

The latest leak came despite the Met Police warning against publication.

The first memos criticising Trump's administration, which emerged a week ago, prompted a furious reaction from the US president and resulted in Sir Kim resigning from his role.

In the Mail's most recent revelation, it reports Sir Kim wrote that Republican President Trump appeared to be abandoning the nuclear deal for "personality reasons" because the pact had been agreed by his Democrat predecessor, Barack Obama.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

However, President Trump said he did not think that the deal went far enough and reinstated US sanctions after withdrawing from the deal in May 2018.

The British ambassador is said to have highlighted splits amongst US presidential advisors and that the White House did not have a "day-to-day" strategy of what to do following withdrawal from the deal.

The paper reports that Sir Kim wrote a memo to Mr Johnson, saying: "The outcome illustrated the paradox of this White House: you got exceptional access, seeing everyone short of the president; but on the substance, the administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons - it was Obama's deal.

"Moreover, they can't articulate any 'day-after' strategy; and contacts with State Department this morning suggest no sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, whether in Europe or the region."

• What is the Official Secrets Act?
• Met Police criticised over press leak warning

Police launched a criminal investigation into the origins of the first leak with Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu saying there was a "clear public interest" in bringing those responsible to justice.

The latest disclosure comes despite a warning from Scotland Yard to media about publishing leaked diplomatic memos.

The warning prompted a backlash from newspaper editors and MPs, who defended the freedom of the press.

The Met Police released a second statement suggesting journalists who released further details of the former ambassador's communications could be in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

The first leaked emails saw the then UK ambassador refer to the Trump administration as "clumsy and inept". The US president responded by calling Sir Kim as "a very stupid guy" with whom he would no longer deal.

The government launched an internal Whitehall inquiry into the leak.

But Sir Kim stepped down as US ambassador on Wednesday, saying it was "impossible" for him to continue.

Paper defends stance

The Mail on Sunday has defended its decisions to publish further details from the memos.

A spokesman for the newspaper said it was in the public interest and revealed "important information" on the UK's attempts to stop President Trump abandoning the Iran nuclear deal.

He added: "What could be more in the public interest than a better understanding of how this position was reached, which may have serious consequences for world peace?"

In response, a Foreign Office spokesman called it a "totally unacceptable leak" of "sensitive material" and called for the source of the leak to "face the consequences of their actions".

He added that it was "not news" that the UK and US differ in their approach to preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

'Disgraceful treatment'

British civil service union leaders have called the episode "part of a wider culture of abusing civil servants which has been allowed to develop over the last few years."

In a letter to the Observer, the heads of the Prospect and FDA unions, which represent tens of thousands of civil servants, said Sir Kim's "disgraceful" treatment followed briefings against officials amid "sustained attacks from across the political spectrum".

• Top civil servant demands leak co-operation
• Government investigating Corbyn health claims

Sir Nigel Sheinwald, who was UK ambassador to the US from 2007 to 2012, told the paper he suspected that whoever was behind the leak has "a wider target of our system of public service".

He suggested the motive could have been trying to influence the succession of Sir Kim, as well as "influence the way the next government handled the civil service".

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2019-07-14 08:31:53Z
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At least one American among the 27 dead in terrorist attack on hotel in Somalia - NBC News

At least one American is among the 27 who died in a terrorist attack on a hotel in Somalia on Saturday, and the U.S. State Department said it is still working to confirm whether other American citizens were hurt or killed in the assault.

Al Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack that lasted more than 14 hours. The assault on the Asasey hotel in the Somali port of Kismayo began with a suicide bomber ramming a car packed with explosives and continued with a long gun battle, leaving 27 people dead and 56 injured, Somalia's Minister for Planning and Development Aden Ibrahim Aw Hirshi said Saturday.

Fourteen people were airlifted to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, for treatment, Aw Hirshi said.

"We send our sincere condolences to the friends and families of the victims killed in the attacks in Kismayo and wish the injured a speedy recovery," a State Department spokesperson said.

The United Nations and multiple countries condemned the attacks. The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira, said Somalia had made great strides in taking back territory from the terrorist group. This act of violence, he added, was meant to undermine that progress.

"This is an attack meant to derail progress in Somalia as the country rebuilds and consolidates the gains made on peace and security," Madeira said. "The attackers are a group of people with criminal, murderous and destructive agenda. They cannot claim to be fighting to bring good governance to the country."

A view of Asasey Hotel after an attack, in Kismayo , Somalia, on July 13, 2019.AP

The State Department said that the U.S. would continue to work with local authorities to support "a credible, democratic electoral process in Jubaland," a region in southern Somalia that will hold an election later this summer.

The U.S. reopened a diplomatic mission in Mogadishu last December for the first time in over 15 years. The U.S. embassy in Somalia was closed in 1991 when all diplomatic personnel were evacuated as the country fought a civil war.

"We condemn these attacks and will continue to work with our Somali and international partners in the fight against violent extremism in Somalia," the State Department spokesperson said.

Abigail Williams

Phil McCausland

Phil McCausland is an NBC News reporter focused on the rural-urban divide.

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2019-07-13 18:31:00Z
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Hong Kong protesters take aim at Chinese traders - Al Jazeera English

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2019-07-13 18:14:41Z
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2 Americans killed during attack at a Somalia hotel - ABC News

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2019-07-13 16:21:11Z
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Turkey bought Russian S-400 missiles designed to down NATO planes. For the US, that's a problem - CNN

But the deal, worth about $2 billion and consummated this week, has consequences far beyond the cost to Ankara's defense budget.

It calls into question the decades-long strategic relationship between Turkey and the US, and even Turkey's credentials as a NATO member. It probably nullifies a massive contract for Turkey to buy US F-35 combat aircraft -- a plane the S-400 is designed to shoot down.

The deal also solidifies a deepening relationship between Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin -- two leaders with little time for dissent at home and who need each other in Syria. And it provides the Turkish armed forces with an advanced weapon capable of covering most of Syria and their old adversary Greece (also a NATO member.)

The S-400 can shoot down aircraft at a distance of up to 150 miles (240 km) and intercept ballistic missiles up to 38 miles away.

In essence it is a destabilizing purchase in a region that could do without any more destabilizing. It is also an assertion by Turkey of its independence as a major regional power.

Tension between Turkey and US

Erdogan and the United States have been at odds for years. The Turkish President said the US had protected Fethullah Gulen, the cleric (and Pennsylvania resident) he blames for an attempted coup in 2016. Erdogan declared: "The coup plotter is in your country. You are nurturing him there. It's out in the open."

He has demanded Gulen's extradition countless times, but there's no sign US authorities will accede.

Erdogan and other senior members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have often played to anti-American sentiment among the party's conservative, nationalist base.

Erdogan was also infuriated by the US alliance with the Kurdish militia in Syria -- the YPG -- in the campaign to defeat ISIS. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group affiliated with the PKK, which has fought the Turkish state for more than three decades.

When the US considered training a mainly Kurdish contingent to guard the Turkish border last year, Erdogan tweeted: "The US has now acknowledged that it has established a terror army along our borders."

The tension persists. The two sides can't agree on the establishment of a safe zone for refugees inside northern Syria. And this week, CNN reported that US military intelligence is observing a buildup of Turkish armored units that may be planning cross-border combat operations -- amid growing concerns that US troops operating in northern Syria will be caught in the middle.

"There are some indications" that Turkey is preparing for an "incursion" into Syria, but the intelligence is not yet definitive, one official said.

For its part Washington has been exasperated by prison sentences handed to US citizens in Turkey (Pastor Andrew Brunson being the most prominent example) and Turkish staff working at the US Embassy -- seeing them as politically motivated. The Trump administration retaliated by imposing sanctions on senior Turkish ministers.

There was also tension over the Saudi response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- and over what was perceived as an ambivalent approach in Ankara to confronting ISIS, especially in 2015-16. Sporadic threats by Turkey to close the US airbase at Incirlik have been another irritant.

But all these difficulties pale in comparison to the fallout from the S-400 deal. Even before the first deliveries, the US warned that Turkey would be suspended from the F-35 combat jet program and stopped training its pilots.

Erdogan has said that excluding Turkey from the F-35 program would be "robbery," since Ankara has already invested more than $1 billion in the consortium building it. Altogether it planned to buy 116 planes.

The US also threatened new sanctions should Turkey complete the S-400 contract, prompting Erdogan to claim on the sidelines of the G-20 summit: "It is out of question between two strategic partners. I think it should not happen."

US President Donald Trump has suggested the sanctions could be diluted, but many in Congress are determined Turkey should be penalized. According to a US federal law (the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), the administration must levy at least five different penalties against Turkey. Just how punitive they will be is yet to be seen.

NATO is also concerned that the S-400 deal will affect Turkey's ability to cooperate with other alliance members. "Interoperability of our armed forces is fundamental to NATO for the conduct of our operations and missions," said one official.

Putin stirs up trouble

Russia is of course delighted that it has not only sold its S-400 to a member of NATO but helped drive a deeper wedge between Turkey and the US. The Turkish purchase is also a great shop window for the Russian defense industry. India is expected to be the next customer for the S-400.

And then there's Syria. President Vladimir Putin seduced Turkey into joining the "Astana" process with Russia and Iran on the future of Syria, essentially sidelining the United Nations and the US. Now, Erdogan needs Russian support to prevent an offensive by the Assad regime against the rebel-held province of Idlib, where Turkey has peacekeeping troops but also backs several rebel factions.

If Turkey wants to have any sway on the future shape of Syria, it has to engage with Russia. Buying the S-400 helped cement a necessary if not necessarily warm relationship.

Above all, the arrival of the first batch of S-400 equipment in Ankara on Friday is the most dramatic instance of a trend that stretches back to the Arab Spring. Erdogan, already in power for more than 15 years, wants to fashion Turkey as an independent and influential power in the region, no longer beholden to the United States and no longer in need of the American nuclear umbrella that protected it for decades.

Holding out an olive branch Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey was still considering buying US Patriot missiles "to cover our need for a long-range air and missile defense system." He also said the purchase of the S-400 "does not in any way mean a change of [Turkey's] strategic orientation."

But the course of Turkey's strategy seems set.

As Aaron Stein puts it in Foreign Affairs, Erdogan and the AKP "don't think their relationship with Washington is nearly as valuable as Washington seems to think it is."

Taking up the thread, Steven A. Cook, a longtime Turkey watcher, says Ankara "is not the partner it used to be. In the future, U.S. policy should be based on the fact that while Turkey is not an enemy of the United States, it is also not a friend."

And you don't share your best jets with countries that are not your friends.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/13/europe/turkey-russia-missiles-nato-analysis-intl/index.html

2019-07-13 16:06:00Z
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