Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is “actively” working to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan, two Americans currently imprisoned in Russia.
“We did put a significant proposal on the table many months ago,” Blinken said Sunday. “And since then, we’ve been engaged repeatedly, in any way that we can, to try to advance it and to look to see if there are different permutations that could achieve what we’re trying to achieve, which is to get our people home.”
“We will not stop until we do,” he added.
Blinken noted that despite what the U.S. offered, “the other side gets a vote in this. It’s not just what we want. It’s what they’re prepared to do.”
Griner was arrested in February in Moscow after authorities found a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage. She was convicted in August and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony, where she was transferred last month. Whelan has been held since 2018 after being arrested during a visit to the country for a wedding. He was convicted on espionage charges and sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.
President Joe Biden has said he is “determined” to bring Griner home, saying he was hopeful Russian President Vladimir Putin would be more open to discussions after this year’s midterm elections.
“The proof will be in the pudding,” Blinken said Sunday. “We are not resting on the laurels of having put forward a proposal some months ago, we’ve been actively engaged over these many months to try to move things forward.”
This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” the race to get as much done before the holidays as possible is on here in the nation’s capital. International diplomacy has stepped up on a number of fronts. With continuing protests in Iran, and new challenges when it comes to China, we’ll talk to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the Biden administration supports the zero-COVID protesters in China, explaining that he will address the topic when he visits the country early next year.
“Of course, we do,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked about the US support for the protesters demonstrating against the Chinese government’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions. “We support the right for people everywhere, whether it’s in China, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s any place else, to protest peacefully, to make known their views, to vent their frustrations.”
Blinken said he would bring up the protests with Chinese officials in person next month.
“We will say what we always say and what President (Joe) Biden has said to (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping, which is that human rights and basic civil liberties go to the heart of who we are as Americans. And no American government, no American president is going to be silent on that,” Blinken said.
The demonstrations in China were triggered by a deadly fire on November 24 in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang. The blaze killed at least 10 people and injured nine in an apartment building – leading to public fury after videos of the incident appeared to show lockdown measures had delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.
The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, with residents unable to leave the region and many forced to stay home.
As the protest numbers have swelled, many are also demanding greater political freedoms – and some have even called for Xi’s removal.
Protests on such a large scale are highly unusual in China. While demonstrations over local grievances occur periodically, the protests are the most widespread since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement of 1989.
The Chinese government has cracked down swiftly, deploying police at key protest sites, calling protesters to warn them and tightening online censorship.
Blinken said Sunday that the US would take the same approach when the rights of protesters are repressed anywhere else: “We speak out against it, we stand up against it, and we take action against it.”
Demonstrations have rocked Iran for several months, sparking a deadly clampdown from authorities. The nationwide uprising was first ignited by the death of Mahsa (also known as Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in mid-September after being detained by the country’s morality police. Since then, protesters across Iran have coalesced around a range of grievances with the Iranian government.
Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Thursday that Iran’s parliament and judiciary are reviewing the country’s mandatory hijab law, according to pro-reform outlet Entekhab.
Montazeri was also quoted as saying that Iran’s feared morality police had been “abolished,” but Iranian state media strongly pushed back on those comments, saying the interior ministry oversees the force, not the judiciary.
In an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Blinken wouldn’t say if the US believes that a move to abolish the morality police would end the protests in the country.
“That’s up to the Iranian people. This is about that. It’s not about us. And what we’ve seen since the killing of Mahsa Amini has been the extraordinary courage of Iranian young people, especially women, who’ve been leading these protests, standing up for the right to be able to say what they want to say, wear what they want to wear,” Blinken said.
In his interview with Tapper, Blinken pointed to US sanctions on those responsible for the crackdown on protesters in Iran, but he did not mention any cost that has been imposed on China for its crackdown on protests.
Blinken said that “fundamentally” the protests in China and Iran were not about the US.
“This is about people in both countries trying to express their views, trying to have their aspirations met, and the response that the governments are taking to that,” he said.
The transatlantic reset between Brussels and Washington is on life support.
After four years of discord and disruption under Donald Trump, hopes were high that Joe Biden’s presidency would usher in a new era of cooperation between Europe and the U.S. after he declared: “America is back.”
But when senior officials from both sides meet in Washington on Monday for a twice-yearly summit on technology and trade, the mood will be gloomier than at any time since Trump left office.
The European Union is up in arms over Biden’s plans for hefty subsidies for made-in-America electric cars, claiming these payments, which partly kick in from January 1, are nothing more than outright trade protectionism.
At the same time, the U.S. is increasingly frustrated the 27-country bloc won’t be more aggressive in pushing back against China, accusing some European governments of caving in to Beijing’s economic might.
Those frictions are expected to overshadow the so-called EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) summit this week. At a time when the Western alliance is seeking to maintain a show of unity and strength in the face of Russian aggression and Chinese authoritarianism, the geopolitical stakes are high.
Biden may have helped matters last Thursday, during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, by saying he believed the two sides can still resolve some of the concerns the EU has raised.
“We’re going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America but not at the expense of Europe,” Biden said. “We can work out some of the differences that exist, I’m confident.”
But, as ever, the details will be crucial.
It is unclear what Biden can do to stop his Buy American subsidies from hurting European car-markers, for example, many of which come from powerful member countries like France and Germany. The TTC summit offers a crucial early opportunity for the two sides to begin to rebuild trust and start to deliver on Biden’s warm rhetoric.
Judging by the TTC’s record so far, those attending, who will include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, will have their work cut out.
More than 20 officials, policymakers and industry and society groups involved in the summit told POLITICO that the lofty expectations for the TTC have yet to deliver concrete results. Almost all of the individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be attending the TTC | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Some officials privately accused their counterparts of broken promises, particularly on trade. Others are frustrated at a lack of progress in 10 working groups on topics like helping small businesses to digitize and tackling climate change.
“With these kinds of allies, who needs enemies?” said one EU trade diplomat when asked about tensions around upcoming U.S. electric car subsidies. A senior U.S. official working on the summit hit back: “We need the Europeans to play ball on China. So far, we haven’t had much luck.”
Much of the EU-U.S. friction is down to three letters: IRA.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which provides subsidies to “Buy American” when it comes to purchasing electric vehicles, has infuriated officials in Brussels who see it as undermining the multilateral trading system and a direct threat to the bloc’s rival car industry.
“The expectation the TTC was established to provide a forum for precisely these advanced exchanges with a view to preventing trade frictions before they arise appears to have been severely frustrated,” said David Kleimann, a trade expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
Biden’s room for flexibility is limited. The context for the subsidies and tax breaks is his desire to make good on his promise to create more manufacturing jobs ahead of an expected re-election run in 2024. The U.S. itself is hovering on the edge of a possible recession.
In addition, the U.S. trade deficit with the EU hit a record $218 billion in 2021, second only to the U.S. trade deficit with China. The U.S. also ran an auto trade deficit of about $22 billion with European countries, with Germany accounting for the largest share of that.
Washington has few, if any, meaningful policy levers at its disposal to calm European anger. During a recent visit to the EU, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, urged European countries to pass their own subsidies to jumpstart Europe’s electric car production, according to three officials with knowledge of those discussions.
“It risks being the elephant in the room,” said Emily Benson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, when asked about the electric car dispute.
After a push from Brussels, there were increasing signs on Friday that the TTC could still play a role. In the latest version of the TTC’s draft declaration, obtained by POLITICO, both sides commit to addressing the European concerns over Biden’s subsidies, including via the Trade and Tech Council. Again, though, there was no detail on how Washington could resolve the issue.
Politicians across Europe are already drawing up plans to fight back against Biden’s subsidies. That may include taking the matter to the World Trade Organization, hitting the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs or passing a “Buy European Act” that would nudge EU consumers and businesses to buy locally made goods and components.
Officials and business leaders pose for a photo during the TTC in September 2021 | Pool photo by Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images
Privately, Washington has not been in the mood to give ground. Speaking to POLITICO before Biden met Macron, five U.S. policymakers said the IRA was not aimed at alienating allies, stressing that the green subsidies fit the very climate change goals that Europe has long called on America to adopt.
“There’s just a huge amount to be done and more frankly to be done than the market would provide for on its own,” said a senior White House official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “We think the Inflation Reduction Act is reflective of that type of step, but we also think there is a space here for Europe and others, frankly, to take similar steps.”
China tensions
Senior politicians attending the summit are expected to play down tensions this week when they announce a series of joint EU-U.S. projects.
These include funds for two telecommunications projects in Jamaica and Kenya and the announcement of new rules for how the emerging technology of so-called trustworthy artificial intelligence can develop. There’s also expected to be a plan for more coordination to highlight potential blockages in semiconductor supply chains, according to the draft summit statement obtained by POLITICO.
Yet even on an issue like microchips — where both Washington and Brussels have earmarked tens of billions of euros to subsidize local production — geopolitics intervenes.
For months, U.S. officials have pushed hard for their European counterparts to agree to export controls to stop high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment being sent to China, according to four officials with knowledge of those discussions.
Washington already passed legislation to stop Chinese companies from using such American-made hardware. The White House had been eager for the European Commission to back similar export controls, particularly as the Dutch firm ASML produced equipment crucial for high-end chipmaking worldwide.
Yet EU officials preparing for the TTC meeting said such requests had never been made formally to Brussels. The draft summit communiqué makes just a passing reference to China and threats from so-called non-market economies.
Unlike the U.S., the EU remains divided on how to approach Beijing as some countries like Germany have long-standing economic ties with Chinese businesses that they are reluctant to give up. Without a consensus among EU governments, Brussels has little to offer Washington to help its anti-China push.
“In theory, the TTC is not about China, but in practice, every discussion with the U.S. is,” said one senior EU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If we talk with Katherine Tai about Burger King, it has an anti-China effect.”
Gavin Bade, Clea Caulcutt, Samuel Stolton and Camille Gijs contributed reporting.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his NATO counterparts are gathering in Romania to drum up urgently needed support for Ukraine, including deliveries of electrical components for the war-torn country’s devastated power transmission network
BUCHAREST, Romania — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his NATO counterparts are gathering in Romania on Tuesday to drum up urgently needed support for Ukraine, including deliveries of electrical components for the war-torn country’s devastated power transmission network.
Ukraine’s grid has been battered countrywide since early October by targeted Russian strikes, in what U.S. officials call a Russian campaign to weaponize the coming winter cold.
Ahead of the meeting, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is trying to use winter as a weapon of war against Ukraine” and that NATO’s allies and Ukraine “need to be prepared for more attacks.”
The meeting in the capital Bucharest is likely to see NATO make fresh pledges of nonlethal support to Ukraine: fuel, generators, medical supplies, winter equipment and drone-jamming devices. Blinken will announce substantial U.S. aid for Ukraine’s energy grid, U.S. officials said
Individual allies are also likely to announce fresh supplies of military equipment for Ukraine — chiefly the air defense systems that Kyiv so desperately seeks to protect its skies — but NATO, as an organization, will not, to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia.
The ministers, along with their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, will also look further afield.
“Over the longer term we will help Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment to modern NATO standards, doctrine and training,” Stoltenberg said on Friday.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
It doesn’t matter whether Brazil or Argentina or someone else lifts the trophy next month, Qatar has already won the World Cup.
Despite more than a decade of critical coverage — which at first zeroed in on the bribery and corruption embedded in the bidding process, and then highlighted Qatar’s regressive labor and human rights laws — the Gulf petro-monarchy has emerged stronger than ever after an unrivaled nation-building project.
The World Cup, which starts Sunday, has helped accelerate Qatar’s development, supercharging the construction of high-end stadiums, gleaming shopping malls, five-star hotels and a world-class airport — and enabled it to wield both geopolitical and sporting influence.
And, no matter the human rights backlash, the tournament has some of the West’s most senior politicians onside.
Emmanuel Macron on Thursday joined the chorus of politicians asking people to go easy on Qatar, saying that “sport shouldn’t be politicized.” The French president was echoing a much-criticized FIFA letter earlier this month, in which President Gianni Infantino told World Cup teams to stick to football and avoid dishing out morality lessons.
Far from being a diplomatic repellent, the controversial World Cup will instead welcome numerous senior Western officials. As first reported by POLITICO, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the U.S. vs. Wales match on Monday. Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib will be there to support the Red Devils. Her British counterpart James Cleverly is also going to Doha.
Qatar has long been under fire for its brutal use of migrant laborers; its attitude toward LGBTQ+ rights; and potential state surveillance of fans. Externally, it was hammered by a yearslong blockade by its Gulf neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia and implicitly endorsed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
But Qatar has seen off both critics and enemies thanks to its diplomatic dexterity, the leverage created by its vast hydrocarbon resources — and its willingness to splash the cash.
“Qatar decided it was going to learn to drive in the fast lane of a motorway,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris, of the World Cup bid. “But Qatar had the money to be able to learn to drive.”
***
Some of the criticism — which continues unabated on the eve of the tournament — did hit home. And, in at least one case, sparked change.
The kafala system, a sponsorship-based employment mechanism first introduced by the British to Bahrain in the 1930s, was ended by law in Qatar in 2020. In theory, this allows workers in Qatar to change jobs without needing to obtain their employers’ permission. At the same time, Doha also legislated a minimum-wage increase to 1,000 rials per month — or around €264.
Watchdogs, however, point out that Qatar’s “toxic” labor problems — which have resulted in the abuse and death of scores of South Asian migrant workers — didn’t end with the abolition of kafala.
Men making traditional fences ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 | Francois Nel/Getty Images
“I think there’s a big persuasive argument to say that the system facilitates slavery or forced labor,” said Nicholas McGeehan, founding director of FairSquare Research and Projects, whose work has focused extensively on human rights in the Gulf.
“There are other things that help control workers,” McGeehan added. “You have severe amounts of debt, systematic passport confiscation, the absence of trade unions, the absence of civil society, and the absence of any access to justice or good health [care].”
“When you put all these things together, they’re very toxic, and they facilitate almost complete control over the migrant workforce,” McGeehan said.
Estimates vary, as the Qatari government doesn’t share official data on migrant worker deaths, but hundreds of Nepalis have died in the Gulf state of cardiac arrest, workplace accidents and suicide since 2010, according to its government statistics. Meanwhile, Doha’s new labor heat laws offer “terrible protection” from the sweltering temperatures, McGeehan said.
Still, there is some backing for Qatar’s reforms. Marc Tarabella, a Belgian socialist MEP who is vice chair of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula and also co-chair of the Sports Group, told POLITICO that, thanks to the World Cup, Qatar has become “a good example to follow for the other countries in the neighborhood.”
And Qatar in recent months has become increasingly belligerent about defending itself to the West, after years of taking shots on the chin.
The country’s labor minister on Monday told European Parliament lawmakers that Qatar had been subject to a “smear campaign.” The World Cup’s own top official said that criticism of Qatar was “possibly” racially motivated.
Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser al-Khelaifi, who isn’t connected to the World Cup organizing team but is European sports’ most high-profile Qatari, was more circumspect, telling POLITICO that he is “very proud” his country is hosting the World Cup and isn’t “trying to hide” in the shadows.
“Are we doing everything 100 percent right? Maybe not. Are we perfect? No. But we are correcting things,” he said. “The World Cup has done a fantastic job for Qatar: infrastructure, regulation. A lot of things changed; massive things.”
***
Perhaps the only thing that can now truly disrupt Qatar’s crowning achievement is a shambolic tournament from both human rights and logistical perspectives.
That’s something detractors see as a clear possibility.
LGBTQ+ fans who will attend the tournament still run the risk of falling foul of Qatar’s prohibition on homosexuality. The assurances that human rights groups have received from FIFA, crucially unaccompanied by Qatari legislation on LGBTQ+ protections, are insufficient, said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.
Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Escalating those human rights concerns, a Qatari World Cup ambassador told German broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality was “damage in the mind,” in comments that sparked a backlash earlier this month.
Organizational questions also remain just before the tournament starts with Ecuador vs. Qatar on Sunday, with tens of thousands of fans descending on the tiny country.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, told POLITICO that he was concerned about the training of World Cup stewards, the police approach to supporters, and the logistics of shuttling fans to and from stadiums by bus.
While Qatar — a country where the car is king — touts the public transport developments expedited by the World Cup, only some of the stadiums are connected by the sparkling new metro system.
A last-minute U-turn on beer by the Qatari hosts, now banned in and around tournament stadiums, triggered more anxiety for human rights groups, given the previous assurances on alcohol consumption provided by Qatar.
And more than a decade after Qatar actually won the rights to host the tournament, investigations rumble on into the corruption that bedeviled the process and resulted in the FBI knocking in FIFA’s doors. French prosecutors are probing the alleged role of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in helping Qatar win the bid, French daily Le Monde reported earlier this week. Qatar has always denied that it won the bid by nefarious means.
On the activists’ LGBTQ+ concerns, a spokesperson for FIFA said the governing body was “confident that all necessary measures will be in place for LGBTIQ+ fans and allies to enjoy the tournament in a welcoming and safe environment, just as for everyone else.”
In a statement, Qatar’s World Cup Supreme Committee said it “is committed to delivering an inclusive and discrimination-free FIFA World Cup experience that is welcoming, safe and accessible to all participants, attendees and communities in Qatar and around the world.”
***
But what happens when the circus leaves town?
Qatar has shown remarkable geopolitical deftness to keep sweet the competing interests with which its fortunes are interlinked. It hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, while also sharing access with Iran to the gas field which generated its astronomical wealth.
Due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, “Qatar will remain extremely relevant in terms of energy dynamics, especially as gas begins to come on stream,” said Kristian Ulrichsen, fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “I think they’ll continue to play a role in regional diplomacy, especially vis-a-vis Iran if there’s no nuclear negotiation breakthrough.” Doha was a key diplomatic player when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, Ulrichsen added.
One of Qatar’s most successful exports, media conglomerate beIN Media Group, renowned for its international sports broadcasting arm but also the owner of Hollywood’s Miramax film studios, has been approached by various U.S. and Saudi investors interested in buying a stake in the company — as the state mulls how to position itself on the international stage once the World Cup has been and gone.
At the same time, a person familiar with the talks said U.S. investors are interested in buying a stake in PSG, which is wholly owned by Qatar Sports Investments. QSI acquired a 22 percent stake in Portugal’s SC Braga last month, which was the investment fund’s first step into multi-club ownership and a further sign of the increased significance of QSI and beIN for Qatar post-World Cup.
“I don’t think they will give up on sport being a component of the nation’s strategy,” said Mahfoud Amara, associate professor of sport management at Qatar University.
Qatar will host football’s Asian Cup in 2023 and the multi-sport Asian Games in 2030. Officials are currently also in preliminary discussions about a bid for another crown jewel event: The 2036 Summer Olympics.
TIRANA, Albania — Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters on Saturday protested the country’s cost-of-living crisis, blaming it on the center-left government.
Opposition supporters gathered in front of the main government building, shouting that Prime Minister Edi Rama of the ruling Socialist Party should resign.
The protest was mostly peaceful but at the end some broke the police line and sprayed red paint on the main doors of the government building. Others lit candles to memorize two people killed by police in the last years.
Police intervened and at least one protester was taken away.
Albania has seen an 8% price hike this year, especially for basic food and fuel following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Opposition supporters have also blamed Rama for the thousands of young men who leave the country each year in search of a better life.
Rama says his Cabinet has kept inflation low compared to double-digit inflation elsewhere in Europe, and has noted that government subsidizes electricity for families and small businesses.
The protest was organized by the opposition center-right Democratic Party and attended by its leader Sali Berisha, a 78-year-old former president and prime minister, and former President Ilir Meta, now leader of the leftist Freedom Party.
Berisha called on Albanians to support the opposition, which has pledged to double wages and pensions if it gets back into power.
But his party has been plagued by infighting after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year barred Berisha and his close relatives from entering the U.S. for “corrupt acts that undermined democracy” during his 2005-2013 tenure as prime minister.
Western officials welcomed Russia’s retreat from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, labeled a “big moment” by the White House and “another strategic failure” for Moscow by the U.K.
Ukrainian troops on Friday entered Kherson, the only provincial capital to be taken by Russia in its invasion. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a video that Moscow’s troops had been withdrawn from the Ukrainian city and other territories on the western bank of the Dnipro River, in a huge blow to President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
“It has broader strategic implications as well,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, “because being able to push the Russians across the river means that the longer-term threat to places like Odesa and the Black Sea coastline are reduced from where they were before.”
“And so this is a big moment. And it’s certainly not the end of the line, but it’s a big moment,” the top White House official told reporters while flying to a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia, according to a readout published online.
French President Emmanuel Macron called it a “critical step towards the restoration of [Ukraine’s] sovereign rights.”
U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Russia’s retreat “marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson,” according to a statement.
The Ukrainian military said it was overseeing “stabilization measures” around Kherson to make sure it was safe, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. Kyiv was making speedy but cautious efforts to make the city liveable after months of occupation, as one official described it as “a humanitarian catastrophe,” the news outlet said.
“We will restore all conditions of normal life – as much as possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “Our defenders are immediately followed by policemen, sappers, rescuers, energy workers,” he said. “Medicine, communications, social services are returning.’
Roman Holovnya, an adviser to Kherson’s mayor, said humanitarian aid and supplies had begun to arrive, but that many residents still lacked water, medicine, food and electricity, the AP reported.
“The occupiers and collaborators did everything possible so that those people who remained in the city suffered as much as possible over those days, weeks, months of waiting” for Ukraine’s forces to arrive, Holovnya said. “Water supplies are practically nonexistent,” he said.
“I am moved to tears to witness freedom returning to Kherson,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted on Saturday. “Ukrainians hugging their soldiers, and blue and yellow flags raised.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday said that the “war goes on” after the Ukrainian army’s success. Ahead of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cambodia, Kuleba also thanked Washington for helping Kyiv against Moscow’s invasion.
“It’s only together that we will be able to prevail and to kick Russia out of Ukraine. We are on the way. This is coming, and our victory will be our joint victory — victory of all peace-loving nations across the world,” Kuleba said.
Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken will attend the World Cup in Qatar, a U.S. official confirmed to POLITICO Monday.
Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, will be in Al-Rayyan for the U.S. vs. Wales match on November 21, on day two of the most controversial World Cup in decades. He is also expected to hold talks with Qatari leaders.
Qatar has faced blowback ever since it was awarded the tournament in 2010. Bribery and corruption allegations dogged the bidding process, and the country’s human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers have been slammed by activists, politicians and football associations.
Blinken’s attendance is a signal that, despite the criticism that has plagued the tournament, senior diplomatic figures have not been put off attending. Qatar has emerged as a key strategic ally for the West on energy security, as Russia’s war on Ukraine wreaks havoc on Europe’s gas supply.
On the same day as the U.S. takes on Wales, Blinken will also hold talks with Qatari leaders as part of an ongoing strategic dialogue with the Middle Eastern country, a former U.S. official told POLITICO.
U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced Monday that he also would be attending the tournament. He told the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee that fans traveling to Qatar should “respect the law” while they’re in the country, a comment that drew a sharp rebuke from an LGBTQ+ member of the committee.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it had no travel plans to announce.
U.S. President Joe Biden is not expected to attend any of the events, even though the U.S. is — along with Canada and Mexico — hosting the next men’s World Cup in 2026.
The U.S. will also play England on November 25, and face off against Iran on November 29, in what is certain to be a politically charged encounter.
Western security advisers are warning delegates at the COP27 climate summit not to download the host Egyptian government’s official smartphone app, amid fears it could be used to hack their private emails, texts and even voice conversations.
Policymakers from Germany, France and Canada were among those who had downloaded the app by November 8, according to two separate Western security officials briefed on discussions within these delegations at the U.N. climate summit.
Other Western governments have advised officials not to download the app, said another official from a European government. All of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss international government deliberations.
The potential vulnerability from the Android app, which has been downloaded thousands of times and provides a gateway for participants at COP27, was confirmed separately by four cybersecurity experts who reviewed the digital application for POLITICO.
The app is being promoted as a tool to help attendees navigate the event. But it risks giving the Egyptian government permission to read users’ emails and messages. Even messages shared via encrypted services like WhatsApp are vulnerable, according to POLITICO’s technical review of the application, and two of the outside experts.
The app also provides Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which created it, with other so-called backdoor privileges, or the ability to scan people’s devices.
World leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres pose for a group photo during the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
On smartphones running Google’s Android software, it has permission to potentially listen into users’ conversations via the app, even when the device is in sleep mode, according to the three experts and POLITICO’s separate analysis. It can also track people’s locations via smartphone’s built-in GPS and Wi-Fi technologies, according to two of the analysts.
The app is nothing short of “a surveillance tool that could be weaponized by the Egyptian authorities to track activists, government delegates and anyone attending COP27,” said Marwa Fatafta, digital rights lead for the Middle East and North Africa for Access Now, a nonprofit digital rights organization.
“The application is a cyber weapon,” said one security expert after reviewing it, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect colleagues attending COP.
The Egyptian government did not respond to requests for comment. Google said it had reviewed the app and had not found any violations to its app policies.
The potential security risk comes as thousands of high-profile officials descend on Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort town, where so-called QR codes, or quasi-bar codes that direct people to download the smartphone application, are dotted around the city.
Participants at COP27 include global leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, though such high profile politicians are unlikely to download another government’s app.
The experts who spoke to POLITICO said that much of the data and access that the COP27 app gets is fairly standard. But, according to three of these specialists, the combination of the Egyptian government’s track record on human rights and the types of people who would downloaded the app represent a cause for concern.
Strange and extensive access
Three of the researchers said the app posed surveillance risks to those who download it due to its widespread permissions to review people’s devices, though the extent of the risk remains unclear.
Elias Koivula, a researcher at WithSecure, a cybersecurity firm, reviewed the Android app for POLITICO and said he had found no evidence people’s emails had been read. Many of the permissions granted to the climate change conference app also have benign purposes like keeping people up-to-date with the latest travel information around the summit, he added.
But Koivula said other permissions granted to the app appeared “strange” and could potentially be used to track people’s movements and communications. So far, he said he had no evidence that such activity had taken place.
Not all the experts agreed on the risks.
Paul Shunk, a security intelligence engineer at cybersecurity firm Lookout, said he had found no evidence the app had access to emails, describing the idea that it posed a surveillance risk as “strange.” He was confident the app was not built as typical spyware, pouring cold water on claims the app functioned as a listening device. Shunk said it could not record audio if it was running in the background, which makes it “almost completely unsuitable for spying on users.”
The COP27 app uses location tracking “extensively,” Shunk said, but seemingly for legitimate purposes like route planning for summit attendees. It lacked the ability to access location in the background, based on Android permissions, which would be what the app would need for continuous location tracking, he added.
The other two cybersecurity analysts who reviewed the app spoke on the condition of anonymity to safeguard their ongoing security work and to protect colleagues attending the climate change conference.
“Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t download this app onto my phone,” said one of those experts. Those two the researchers also warned that once the application had been downloaded onto a device, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to remove its ability to access people’s sensitive data — even after it had been deleted.
POLITICO checked the app’s potential security risks via two open cybersecurity tools, and both raised concerns about its ability to listen to people’s conversations, track their locations and alter how the app operates without asking for permission.
Both Google and Apple approved the app to appear in their separate app stores. All of the analysts only reviewed the Android version of the app, and not the separate app created for Apple’s devices. Apple declined to comment on the separate app created for its App Store.
Egypt’s track(ing) record
Adding to rights groups’ concerns is the track record of the Egyptian government to monitor its people. In the wake of the so-called Arab Spring, Cairo has clamped down on dissidents and used local emergency rules to track its citizens online and offline activity, according to a report by Privacy International, a nonprofit organization.
As part of the smartphone app’s privacy notice, the Egyptian government says it has the right to use information provided by those who have downloaded the app, including GPS locations, camera access, photos and Wi-Fi details.
“Our application reserves the right to access customer accounts for technical and administrative purposes and for security reasons,” the privacy statement said.
Yet the technical review, both by POLITICO and the outside experts of the COP27 smartphone application discovered further permissions that people had granted, unwittingly, to the Egyptian government that were not made public via its public statements.
These included the application having the right to track what attendees did on other apps on their phone; connecting users’ smartphones via Bluetooth to other hardware in ways that could lead to data being offloaded onto government-owned devices; and independently linking individuals’ phones to Wi-Fi networks, or making calls on their behalf without them knowing.
“The Egyptian government cannot be entrusted with managing people’s personal data given its dismal human rights record and blatant disregard for privacy,” said Fatafta, the digital rights campaigner.
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WASHINGTON — Two Haitian politicians are facing U.S. sanctions over allegations they abused their positions to traffic drugs in collaboration with gang networks and directed others to engage in violence.
The Treasury Department said Friday it was imposing sanctions on Haitian Senate President Joseph Lambert and former Sen. Youri Latortue. The two are accused of using their official roles to engage in the drug trade for decades. Lambert was also designated by the State Department for diplomatic sanctions and visa restrictions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “there is credible information of Lambert’s involvement in a gross violation of human rights, namely an extrajudicial killing, during his government tenure.”
He said the State Department is also designating Lambert’s spouse, Jesula Lambert Domond.
The sanctions mean their U.S. property is blocked and American people and companies that do business with them could face penalties as well.
Spokespeople for Lambert and Latortue did not immediately return WhatsApp messages seeking comment on Friday.
The sanctions against Lambert and Latortue come as Haiti is embroiled in political violence and economic crisis.
Last month, Eric Jean Baptiste, a former presidential candidate and leader of a political party in Haiti, was shot to death in the capital, Port-au-Prince, along with his bodyguard. Baptiste’s death stunned many in the destabilized island nation.
Brian Nelson, Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Lambert and Latortue “abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal and gang networks to undermine the rule of law in Haiti.”
“The United States and our international partners,” Nelson said, “will continue to take action against those who facilitate drug trafficking, enable corruption and seek to profit from instability in Haiti.”
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Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this story.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti.
The U.S. accused Moscow of “weaponizing food” in suspending its participation in agreement allowing grain shipments to leave Ukraine’s ports.
The U.N. and Turkey, which brokered the deal in the summer, said on Sunday that they were in talks to try to bring Russia back into the accord. Ankara said in a tweet that Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar “has been meeting with his counterparts” over the situation.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is engaged in “intense contacts” aimed at bringing Russia back to the deal, the organization said on Sunday, after the Kremlin on Saturday said it was halting the agreement for an “indefinite period,” citing an attack on a base in occupied Crimea that Russia blamed on Ukraine.
The grain export deal, designed to make sure Ukrainian agricultural products can reach international markets, is considered critical to global food security given Ukraine’s role as a major producer of foodstuffs.
“Any act by Russia to disrupt these critical grain exports is essentially a statement that people and families around the world should pay more for food or go hungry,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement late Saturday. “In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started.”
U.S. President Joe Biden called Russia’s move “purely outrageous.”
“It’s going to increase starvation,” Biden told reporters in Delaware on Saturday.
Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. blasted Washington on Sunday for its reaction to Moscow’s decision and reiterated unsubstantiated claims that U.K. operatives were involved in a drone attack on the Russian fleet at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Saturday.
“Washington’s reaction to the terrorist attack on the port of Sevastopol is truly outrageous,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Telegram.
The U.S. and the EU called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to reverse the decision on the Black Sea grain deal.
“Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risks the main export route of much needed grain and fertilizers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said in a tweet.
The Joint Coordination Center — the body established by the U.N., Turkey, Russia and Ukraine to coordinate foodstuff exports from Ukrainian ports — said it is “discussing next steps” following Moscow’s decision to halt the Black Sea agreement. At least 10 vessels, both outbound and inbound, are waiting to enter the humanitarian corridor established by the JCC, the center said late Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow has been “deliberately aggravating” the food crisis since September. “This is an absolutely transparent intention of Russia to return the threat of large-scale famine to Africa and Asia,”he said.
“From September to today, 176 vessels have already accumulated in the grain corridor,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Saturday. Some ships have been waiting for more than three weeks, he said.
Zelenskyy called for a “strong international response” to the Kremlin’s move, specifying the U.N. and “in particular” the G20. “How can Russia be among the G20 if it is deliberately working for starvation on several continents? This is nonsense,” Zelenskyy said.
Poland called the Kremlin’s move “yet another proof that Moscow is not willing to uphold any international agreements.”
“Poland, together with its EU partners, stands ready to work further to help Ukraine and those in need to transport essential goods,” the Polish foreign ministry said in a tweet on Sunday.
Nahal Toosi contributed reporting from Washington.
VANCOUVER, Canada — The U.S. and Canada will work together to “cut the insecurity knot” that has allowed gangs to create a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.
But neither Blinken nor Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly committed their country to leading a military force to the Caribbean nation.
“This is a work in progress and we are continuing to pursue it,” Blinken told a news conference in Ottawa during his first visit to Canada.
Blinken said Canada and the U.S. agree that “more likely needs to be done” to support the Haitian national police to restore their grip on security.
“We’ve been talking about what that might look like,” said Blinken. “We have both been talking to a variety of countries to gauge their interest in and willingness to participate in that.”
Joly said Canada has sent an “assessment mission” to gather information to find the solutions that are supported by Hattians.
Haiti’s interim government has operated in chaos since the July 2021 assassination of former president Jovenel Moise.
Since September, armed gangs have been blockading fuel access, leading to a shortage of basic goods, clean water and medical services, all during a cholera outbreak.
Canada and the U.S. have sent tanks, and the United Nations is considering a military intervention to restore order, which has been endorsed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Later, prior to a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Blinken said Canada and the U.S. “are the two most integrated countries in the world” and have a history of working together to solve issues.
“Not one of the problems that is having an effect on our own people or what we need to deal with around the world can be solved by one of us acting alone,” he said. “The more we find ways to cooperate, to work together, the more effective we’re going to be.”
During the news conference Blinken and Joly reiterated their support for Ukraine, condemned Iran for its treatment of women and for supplying drones to Russia, and pledged to work together to increase Arctic security.
Blinken called Russia’s use of Iranian drones to kill Ukrainian civilians and destroy infrastructure as “appalling.”
“We keep working with our allies and partners to deter and counter Iran’s provision of these weapons,” he said.
Joly said Canada said stands with the women and girls in Iran who are fighting against tyranny.
“Women’s rights are human rights,” she said. “We have a moral obligation to support the brave women of Iran and hold those persecuting them accountable.”
There have been protests across Iran sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.
Blinken also touched on Canadian and U.S. citizens being held by other countries.
Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were held in China for over 1,000 days in what was seen as a retaliation for the arrest in Canada of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner is facing a nine-year jail term in Russia after being convicted of smuggling and possessing cannabis oil.
“We support Canada’s efforts to rally countries around the world in ending the unlawful practice of detaining innocent individuals and using them as political pawns,” said Blinken. “Both our countries have suffered from this.”
The consequences for Russia if it uses a nuclear weapon in its war on Ukraine have been conveyed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
“We’ve also communicated directly and very clearly to the Russians, President Putin about the consequences,” the top US diplomat said at a Bloomberg event. Blinken did not indicate how it was communicated to Putin or by whom, and principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel later suggested that US officials had not communicated directly with him.
“You have seen members of this administration dialogue directly with their counterparts in Russia and express these concerns and the potential for dire consequences,” which “no doubt have likely made its way to President Putin,” Patel said at a State Department briefing.
Biden administration officials have said that Moscow has been warned at the highest levels of the consequences for use of nuclear weapon in the war, but Blinken’s remark is the first explicit mention that the message has been communicated to Putin himself.
Blinken denounced Russia’s latest claim that Ukraine is considering the use of a “dirty bomb” as “another fabrication and something that is also the height of irresponsibility coming from a nuclear power.”
He said the United States has communicated directly with the Russians “about trying to use this false allegation as a pretext for any kind of escalation.”
“The reason this particular allegation gives us some concern is because Russia has a track record of projecting, which is to say, accusing others of doing something that they themselves have done or are thinking about doing,” Blinken said.
Blinken reiterated that the US is tracking the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling “very carefully,” but hasn’t “seen any reason to change our nuclear posture.”
Despite Putin’s rhetoric, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrey Kelin told CNN on Wednesday that Russia will not use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine.
“Russia is not going to use nukes. It is out of the question,” Kelin told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
However, actions taken by Moscow in recent weeks – the “dirty bomb” allegations, attacks on civilian infrastructure, looming defeats on the battlefield, and its annual military exercise – have increased concerns, a senior administration official said.
This official told CNN that the potential collapse of parts of Russia’s military in Ukraine could be the factor that could cause Putin to turn to nuclear weapon use. As such, the US is keeping a close eye on the developments in the Kherson region, where it’s not easy for Russian soldiers to retreat.
Russia informed the US of its annual GROM exercise, which includes its strategic nuclear forces, the Pentagon said. The Kremlin said in a statement Wednesday that Putin was leading military training drills involving practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles.
The official said it may “sounds alarmist” to cite concerns about planned exercises but noted that they cannot be viewed in a silo: they do allow Russians to practice doing things like getting missiles into place and flying bombers to sea at a time when they are being pushed into a corner on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Despite these increased concerns, US officials have not seen evidence of Russian actions that would indicate Moscow is preparing to use nuclear weapons.
“We’ve seen no need to change our own nuclear posture. We don’t have any indication that Moscow is preparing to use nuclear weapons. But this type of rhetoric is concerning for many reasons,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
A Russian court on Tuesday upheld American basketball star Brittney Griner‘s nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, rejecting her appeal in a session where she appeared via video call from a penal colony outside Moscow. Griner can still appeal to a higher court, but her lawyers have yet to confirm whether they will take the case further.
In the ruling, the court stated that the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated with her time in pre-trial detention taken into account. One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1.5 days in prison, so the basketball star will have to serve around eight years in prison.
The decision clears the way for the WNBA star to serve that sentence in a penal colony, unless the U.S. government negotiates a deal.
The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted on August 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
“This has been very traumatic experience, waiting for this day, waiting for the first court, and getting nine years for a crime that I was barely over the significant amount,” Griner told the Moscow hearing on Tuesday. “I don’t understand the first court’s decision to give one year less than the max when I’ve been here almost 8 months, and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given… I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence, because it’s been very, very stressful and very traumatic to my mental and psyche, being away from my family and not being able to communicate.”
“While their legal system is very different from ours, there is no doubt that the original sentence she received was extreme, even for the Russian legal system,” the WNBA said in a statement after Tuesday’s decision. “This appeal is further verification that BG is not just wrongfully detained – she is very clearly a hostage. Let us not be divided in this moment. Rallying around BG and all wrongfully detained Americans is the common thread of humanity that unites us without regard to ideology or political party. We must unite and support the stated public commitment of the Biden Administration and Congressional leaders to do everything possible to get her home.”
Earlier this month, Brittney’s wife, Cherelle Griner, told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King that she was terrified of the WNBA star’s fate.
“It’s like a movie for me. I’m like, ‘In no world did I ever thought, you know, our president and a foreign nation president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife.’ And so to me, as much as everybody’s telling me a different definition of what B.G. is, it feels to me as if she’s a hostage,” Cherelle said.
“That must scare you,” King replied.
“It terrifies me because, I mean, when you watch movies, like, sometimes those situations don’t end well. Sometimes they never get the person back,” said Cherelle.Griner’s February arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner was returning to Russia, where she played during the U.S. league’s offseason.
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner appears on a screen via video link from a detention center before a court hearing to consider her appeal of her prison sentence on Oct. 25, 2022.
EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA / REUTERS
During her trial, Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner’s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.
Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.
In September, U.S. President Joe Biden met with Brittney’s wife, Cherelle, as well as the player’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.
The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.”
The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow also has protested the arrest of another Russian currently in U.S. custody, Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars via an illicit cryptocurrency exchange. Vinnik had been in custody in Greece after being arrested there in 2017 at U.S. request before being extradited to the U.S. in August. It wasn’t clear if Russia might demand Vinnik’s release as part of a potential swap.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Saudi Arabia knew that the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production “would increase Russian revenues” and that the United States is reviewing “consequences” for that decision.
The top US diplomat also confirmed that American officials had urged the oil cartel to hold off its choice, saying the US suggested OPEC+ wait and see how markets reacted in the coming weeks.
The organization’s decision to slash production by two million barrels a day has sparked outrage from the Biden administration and US lawmakers and has prompted calls for a drastic shift in the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a press conference at the State Department, Blinken said that prior to the announcement of the decision, “the Saudis had conveyed to us both privately as well as publicly their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and potentially blunt the effectiveness of sanctions.”
“We made clear that that would be the wrong direction on that basis alone, the impact that it would have potentially on sanctions, but also because we’re in a global economic recovery,” he said. “The recovery is fragile. We’re dealing with headwinds from Covid. We’re also dealing with headwinds from the Russian aggression itself. And so now is not the time to take energy off the market.”
Blinken reiterated that the Biden administration believes energy supply needs to meet market demand, and said OPEC+ “presented no market basis for the cuts.”
“We suggested that if they did have concerns about prices going down significantly, if their objective was to keep prices at a certain level, they should they should wait and see how markets reacted over the coming weeks and wait at least until their next monthly meeting,” he said. “So that’s what we strongly urged them to do … they didn’t do it.”
“As the President’s made very clear, that decision has to have consequences and that’s something that we’re reviewing as we speak,” Blinken said, but noted that the US has “a multiplicity of interests in Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was not politically motivated and was “based purely on economic considerations.”
The statement said Saudi officials had conveyed to the US “that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences.”
“The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms that any attempts to distort the facts about the Kingdom’s position regarding the crisis in Ukraine are unfortunate, and will not change the Kingdom’s principled position, including its vote to support UN resolutions regarding the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, based on the Kingdom’s position on the importance for all countries to adhere to the United Nations Charter, principles of international law, and the Kingdom’s rejection of any infringement on the sovereignty of countries over their territories,” the statement said.
On Thursday morning, US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby accused the Saudi Foreign Ministry of trying to “spin or deflect.”
“Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” Kirby said.
The OPEC+ decision to dramatically cut its oil output targets has left the White House grappling with a complex – and potentially damaging – mix of geopolitical and domestic challenges with few easy answers.
President Joe Biden now faces the reality that an already complex and tenuous bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia has deeply fractured, the Western effort to isolate and shrink Russia’s war effort has taken a direct hit and the US economy and political picture have both grown more fragile.
“Disappointment. We’re looking at what alternatives we may have” to bring down oil prices, Biden told reporters when asked his reaction to the OPEC+ news.
“There’s a lot of alternatives. We haven’t made up our mind yet,” he added.
Biden’s advisers are now re-doubling efforts to find policy and diplomatic options to address the unwelcome surprise.
“We’re going to work to identify the tools that we have to ensure that organizations like OPEC that assign quotas to their members of how much to produce are not – have a muted and less of an impact on American consumers, and quite frankly, on the global economy,” Amos Hochstein, Biden’s top energy envoy, told Bianna Golodryga on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday.
The full scale of the fallout from Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel’s decision may not be apparent for months or longer, officials say. But they are also keenly aware just how many acutely important elements of the administration’s foreign and domestic agenda the production cut spills directly into.
Biden administration officials acknowledge they’re in a very difficult position over their relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called OPEC’s move to cut oil production both “shortsighted and disappointing,” and said the administration is reviewing a “number of response options” when it comes to US-Saudi relations.
“We will not do anything that would infringe on our interests, that’s first and foremost, what will guide us,” Blinken said during a news conference in Peru on Thursday. “We will keep all of those interests in mind and consult closely with all of the relevant stakeholders as we decide on any steps going forward.”
There is clearly a tacit effort underway to evaluate ways to respond to the OPEC+ decision to cut back oil production by 2 million barrels per day. But as has been laid bare repeatedly over the course of Biden’s time in office, the power dynamics between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are simply in a different place now than at any earlier point due to the economic and energy pressures tied to Russia’s invasion.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made abundantly clear he feels no need to be the junior actor, and his overt and explicit moves toward China and Russia have ensured there is no subtlety in his approach.
On a purely oil market basis, the Saudis prize stability over anything else – stability the OPEC+ configuration has provided after damaging price wars and the volatility of the pandemic. Moscow, of course, is the key player in that configuration and it’s notable that beneath the output cut, an extension of the OPEC+ arrangement was also approved on Wednesday.
Still, while administration officials always viewed Biden’s trip to Jeddah – which resulted in the diplomatic fist bump seen around the world – as a critical regional security move, the cartel’s willingness to move in ways so obviously detrimental to US interests has reverberated across the administration. Biden again defended the trip Thursday, saying, “The trip was not essentially for oil. The trip was about the Middle East and about Israel and rationalization of positions.”
“It’s not always about us, we get it,” one US official said. “But they’re just as aware of the perceptions and implications of this move as we are.”
The most obvious lever for the US to pull is security related – it’s far and away the biggest leverage point. But the ramifications of any moves on that front are much broader than the bilateral relationship, officials note, and would directly undercut more than a year of intensive work to establish a coherent regional security posture.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s statement on Wednesday that it “is clear OPEC+ is aligning with Russia” and its war effort was as intentional as it was blunt. Hochstein, in his CNN interview, reiterated that the OPEC+ decision was a “huge mistake” and “the wrong thing to do” amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and high energy prices, saying that Russia and Saudi Arabia are “working together.”
US officials had previously been cautious about directly criticizing the obvious dance Saudi Arabia and others in the region have conducted with Moscow. That posture is gone.
Biden administration officials, according to people with knowledge, made very clear to the Saudis in the days leading up the move that US rhetoric would change dramatically and they would open the door to new options to respond to a major cut. The specifics of those options were left somewhat ambiguous intentionally. But the warning was there.
One notable line in the White House statement issued Wednesday by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and national security adviser Jake Sullivan statement was the idea of working with Congress on legislation related to OPEC.
It’s a reference to a bill that would remove sovereign immunity from antitrust suits, opening the door for the US to sue cartel members. The White House has been cool to the idea due to the very real concern it would launch a price war with the market’s biggest players that would only serve to hurt US consumers. But just cracking the door open to looking at it is notable – and underscores the scale of the anger inside the West Wing.
The legislative reference underscores a key piece how the response will play out in the weeks ahead – the White House has made its statement, which – in a world of cautious diplo-speak – was sharply critical. Now officials have said they are perfectly comfortable letting congressional Democrats rail on the Saudis on their behalf, something they expect to only escalate in the days ahead given the convergence of geopolitical and domestic political factors.
The blistering response from Capitol Hill has the potential to create some the kind of pressure that could create space to pursue actions the administration has been wary of pursuing up to this point.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, for instance, tweeted, “I thought the whole point of selling arms to the Gulf States despite their human rights abuses, nonsensical Yemen War, working against US interests in Libya, Sudan, etc, was that when an international crisis came, the Gulf could choose America over Russia/China.”
The biggest focus for the White House now on oil is on the domestic front. Biden’s top energy and economic advisers met privately with oil executives last week and discussions between officials and industry players have continued this week. Another meeting is likely soon as they continue to search for options to boost US production.
While several options have been floated – including some that infuriate the industry, like potential curbs on exports – it remains unclear whether the White House is ready to move forward on any of them.
A question being weighed now is if OPEC+’s decision changes that dynamic at all in a relationship between the White House and industry that has ping-ponged between clear animosity to cooler heads prevailing and back toward palpable tension over the course of the last several months.
The White House rhetorical reversal hinting at the potential for new Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, a complete 180-degree turn in less than 24 hours, was notable even if it didn’t signal anything concrete.
What it did signal, however, was a clear message to markets that the option was, in fact, on the table.
Blinken on Thursday once again highlighted what the administration has done to boost oil production in the US.
“We’ve taken a number of steps over the last months to try and ensure that that’s the case, including releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increasing significantly our production. Oil production is up in the United States by about 500,000 barrels a day,” he said.
Blinken also added that the administration is “looking at other steps that we can take to ensure that there is adequate supply to meet to meet global demand.”
The final release of 10 million from Biden’s announced 180 million barrel release over six months is still scheduled for November, even though the actual total barrels released will fall under the full amount Biden initially targeted. Cracking the door open on additional releases was an effort to signal there is a view inside the White House that there are still metaphorical bullets in the chamber if they need them.
One key point to remember amid the hand-wringing: Predictions of specific price increases at the pump are a fool’s errand.
“I believe it will have less of an impact in the United States and far more of an impact on lower-income countries around the world,” Hochstein said.
The market has been pricing in the output cut for several days. A key element of the output cut is that nearly all OPEC+ members have been missing their production targets for months. So “2 million barrels per day” is actually far less than that from a production basis.
In other words, there are a myriad of factors that drive retail prices – such as in California, where soaring gas prices over the last two weeks were in large part due to a mess of refinery issues – and no single answer to the range of new complications White House officials are now facing.
Biden’s message, behind his disappointment with the production cut, was clear cut, according to Hochstein.
“The President is still instructing us to work, to do whatever we can,” he said.
MANILA, Philippines — More than 2,500 U.S. and Philippine marines joined combat exercises Monday to be able to respond to any sudden crisis in a region long on tenterhooks over South China Sea territorial disputes and increasing tensions over Taiwan.
The annual military drills are some of the largest so far between the longtime treaty allies under newly elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. His predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had been an outspoken critic of U.S. security policies and frowned on military exercises with American forces he said could offend China.
Called Kamandag the Tagalog acronym for “Cooperation of the Warriors of the Sea” — the drills involve 1,900 U.S. Marines and more than 600 mostly Philippine counterparts in mock amphibious assaults and special operations, U.S. and Philippine military officials said. America’s HIMARS missile launchers and supersonic fighter jets will be in live-fire maneuvers that will end on Oct. 14, they said.
The venues include the western island province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, and the northern Philippines, across the Luzon Strait from Taiwan.
The military maneuvers in the Philippines are being held simultaneously with combat exercises between U.S. Marines and Japanese army self-defense forces on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido that involve about 3,000 military personnel from both sides, U.S. military officials said.
U.S. Maj. Gen. Jay Bargeron of the Japan-based 3rd Marine Division said the simultaneous exercises were aimed at bolstering the defensive capabilities of the U.S. alliances with the Philippines and Japan “through realistic combined training.”
“These exercises will allow our forces to strengthen interoperability and readiness to ensure we are prepared to rapidly respond to crisis throughout the Indo-Pacific,” Bargeron said in a statement.
“Our strength, resolve and commitment to our allies and partners in the region are our most effective deterrent,” U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Kurt Stahl told The Associated Press. “Together, we can deter potential adversaries from ever testing our capabilities or our relationships.”
In July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend the Philippines under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.
The ruling was issued by an arbitration tribunal set up in The Hague under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea after the Philippine government complained in 2013 about China’s seizure of a shoal off its northwestern coast. China did not participate, called the arbitration decision a sham and continues to defy it.
In addition to China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have had overlapping claims in the busy waterway, where an estimated $5 trillion in goods passes each year and which is believed to be rich in undersea gas and oil deposits.
Separately, President Joe Biden said last month that American forces would defend Taiwan if Beijing tries to invade the self-ruled island, sparking protests from China.
The long-simmering sea disputes and the increasingly tense relations between China and Taiwan have become key fronts of the U.S.-China rivalry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American tech firms will be allowed to expand their business in Iran, where most internet access has been cut off in response to anti-government protests, the Treasury Department said Friday.
Iran has been cracking down on demonstrators protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of its morality police. Iranian state TV suggests that as many as 26 protesters and police have been killed since violence erupted over the weekend.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the move will help counter the government’s surveillance efforts.
“It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people,” Blinken said in an emailed statement. “Mahsa Amini is senselessly, tragically dead, and now the government is violently suppressing peaceful protesters rightly angry about her loss.”
The morality police detained Amini last week, saying she didn’t properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.
U.S. sanctions were imposed Thursday on the morality police and leaders of other law enforcement agencies.
The Treasury Department said an updated general license issued Friday authorizes tech firms to offer more social media and collaboration platforms, video conferencing and cloud-based services.
The updated license also removes the condition that communications be “personal,” which Treasury said was burdening companies with the need to verify the purpose of the communications.
“As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.
“With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to surveil and censor them.”
Amir Rashidi, an exiled Iranian who is director of internet security and digital rights at Miaan Group, said lifting restrictions will help Iranians bypass censorship.
“Also it’s going to provide Iranians with safety and security,” he said. “When you can have your data outside the country Iranian security services cannot unlawfully access your data because your data is protected by international law outside Iran.”
In 2014, Treasury’s sanctions arm issued a license authorizing exports of software and services to Iran that would allow the free exchange of communication over the internet, with the intent to foster the free flow of information to Iranian citizens.
Even so, U.S. firms have been reluctant to do business in Iran, due to fears of violating existing sanctions and other laws that impose penalties.
On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his satellite internet firm Starlink would seek permission to operate in Iran. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was up to Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to decide on Starlink’s next steps.
The White House said the move, along with a recent increase in sanctions, does not affect the administration’s plans to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.
“We have concerns, we do, with Iran,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but pursuing the Iran deal “is the best way for us to address the nuclear problem.”
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Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.
