The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Donald Trump

  • China calls on U.S., North Korea to ease tensions, meet halfway

    China on Wednesday asked the U.S. and North Korea to cherish recent efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and meet each other halfway, hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un threatened to cancel a highly anticipated summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

    “When the peace settlement process on the peninsula is facing an important opportunity, all parties concerned, especially North Korea and the U.S., should meet each other halfway and show kindness.

    “They should show sincerity to each other, and together create favourable conditions and atmosphere for the leaders’ meeting,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said on Wednesday.

    His statement came hours after Jong-Un threatened to cancel his summit with Trump, scheduled for June 12, if the U.S. insisted that North Korea completely abandon its nuclear weapons.

    Read Also: Nigeria, China in $2.5b currency swap deal

    China also hopes the DPRK and the ROK will follow the spirit of the Panmunjom Declaration, understand and respect each other’s reasonable concerns to build trust and improve ties, Lu said.

    Lu called on the parties concerned to avoid taking steps that would escalate the situation.

    He also called for creating favorable conditions for dialogue and consultations.

    NAN

  • Iran’s Supreme Leader :Trump’s speech ‘silly, superficial’

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was “silly and superficial”, Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Wednesday, according to his official website.

    “You heard last night that the president of America made some silly and superficial comments,” said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    “He had maybe more than 10 lies in his comments. He threatened the regime and the people, saying I’ll do this and that.

    “Mr Trump I tell you on behalf of the Iranian people: You’ve made a mistake.”

    Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, reluctantly gave his backing for the Iran nuclear deal and has publicly criticized the U.S. multiple times for not following through on its promises under the agreement.

    On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the U. S. would no longer remain part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and promised  to re-impose the highest level of economic sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran’s development of  nuclear programme.

    “Egypt stresses importance of the involvement of the concerned Arab states in any dialogue on the future
    of the Middle East, particularly, in relation to possible changes to the Iranian nuclear deal,” the
    Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    Read Also: European leaders spurn Trump’s withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal

    Cairo urged Iran and regional states to avoid any steps that could undermine security in the Middle East or
    lead to military confrontations, according to the statement.

    Meanwhile, the UAE welcomed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, as it did not guarantee that Iran
    would not acquire nuclear weapon in future, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry’s statement.

    The decision was also welcomed by Saudi Arabia and Israel.

    In response to the U.S. move, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Tehran was not going to
    withdraw from the JCPOA, and that the agreement remained between Iran and the five remaining participants
    of the deal. He noted that the United States never fulfilled the obligations under the nuclear deal, unlike Iran.

    On July 14, 2015, the European Union and the P5+1 group of countries – China, Germany, France, Russia, the
    UK and the U.S., signed the JCPOA with Iran.

    The accord stipulated a gradual lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear
    programme and allowing inspections to ensure that the nature of the program is peaceful.

    NAN

     

     

  • Trump pulls U.S. out of Iran deal, reinstates sanctions

    U.S. President Donald Trump has announced his country’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and says he will partially renew sanctions on Iran.

    “It is clear to me that we cannot prevent a nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current deal.

    “The fact is that this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never ever been made,’’ Trump said.

    The 2015 agreement sealed by Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, with the support of China, Russia, Germany, France and the UK, eased sanctions on Tehran.

    This was in exchange for commitments to halt what Western powers feared was a nuclear weapons programme.

    France, Germany and the UK launched a diplomatic offensive in recent weeks attempting to persuade Trump not to scuttle the deal which aims to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

    Trump said he opposed the agreement, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), during the 2016 presidential campaign.

    Since taking office, he has repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of the pact, recently calling it a “horrible deal’’.(dpa/NAN)

  • Trump’s gambit Iran: World awaits decision on nuclear deal

    “Insane,” “ridiculous,” “worst deal ever” are some of the descriptions used by US President Donald Trump for the Iran nuclear agreement, which he has bitterly opposed since early in his campaign for the White House.

    The world will soon find out whether Trump’s rants about the 2015 deal will produce a concrete shift in US diplomacy, regarding one of the most important foreign policy issues of his presidency.

    Trump officially has until Saturday to decide whether to reintroduce US sanctions on Iran, which among other things could spell an end to the accord.

    But he has said he will announce his decision at 2.00 p.m. ( 1800 GMT ) on Tuesday.

    In January, Trump renewed waivers for US sanctions on Iran but warned that it was the last time he would do so unless several “disastrous flaws” in the agreement were addressed.

    His ultimatum triggered a 120-day period that ends this weekend.

    There is a growing consensus in the United States that his decision will effectively pull the US out of the deal, and that prospect has been accompanied by a range of speculation over what comes next.

    French President, Emmanuel Macron, said he didn’t know what Trump would decide.

    But after several meetings with the president over a three-day state visit recently he said: “My view is that he will get rid of this deal on his own for domestic reasons’’.

    “The president campaigned on getting out of the deal and I think that he’s going to do so,’’ Lieut.-Gen. William G Boykin said on Thursday on Fox News.

    Iranian leaders already have pledged to abandon the deal if the US withdraws.

    But it could remain in the deal with Britain, France and Germany, along with China and Russia, which have expressed their continued support.

    Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has warned that if Trump withdraws, it could risk war.

    Since Trump issued the ultimatum in January, U.S. and European negotiators have met a number of times to address US concerns within and beyond the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA ), as the deal is formally known.

    The U.S. side has raised four main issues: Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its involvement in regional conflicts, inspection of Iranian nuclear sites and so-called sunset clauses.

    The sunset clauses, which let some restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme expire, have proved the most difficult of these.

    The U.S. claims that the clauses provide Iran with a pathway to building nuclear weapons over time.

    Trump has pushed the European partners to search for possible compromises.

    Determined to stay in the deal, the bloc has argued that abandoning it would not help address the ballistic weapons issue or Iran’s role in the region.

    “The JCPOA is a non-proliferation agreement.

    “Other issues of concern are addressed separately,’’ a senior EU official said on condition of anonymity.

    “If the deal falls apart, you would not be in any better position to tackle these issues.’’

    Furthermore, the deal is doing what it is supposed to do, by curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, the official noted.

    If the agreement falls apart and there’s no substitute, he said, it would “probably trigger a nuclear arms race in the region.’’

    The dramatic developments on the Korean Peninsula may also influence Trump’s thinking on the nuclear deal.

    Pulling out of the JCPOA could erode the trust he’s tried to build in the effort to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, ahead of a planned meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un; or it could send a strong message to Pyongyang that Trump is prepared to deliver on his threats.

    Domestic politics could likewise have a role to play, as Trump could be thinking about fulfilling a campaign promise ahead of the November mid-term elections to boost his Republican Party’s chances of maintaining its majority in Congress.

    In recent weeks, Trump has manoeuvred aggressively.

    Read Also: U.S. Ambassador to UN disapproves of Trump’s “communication style”

    He has changed his secretary of state, switching the moderate Rex Tillerson for the more hawkish Mike Pompeo, a fierce critic of the Iran deal.

    He has also brought in John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk, as his national security adviser.

    Pompeo met Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his first foreign trip after taking office, stressing that if the Iran nuclear deal cannot be fixed, Trump will withdraw.

    The “full array of threats,’’ including Iran’s missile systems and support for militant groups in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen must be addressed as part of a revised agreement, he said.

    Pompeo also said documents that Netanyahu revealed April 30 show that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme for years and lied about it.

    “What this means is the deal was not constructed on a foundation of good faith or transparency,’’ Pompeo said.

    NAN

  • Israeli Minister threatens to end Assad’s rule

    An Israeli Minister threatened to end the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday in a sharp increase in Israeli rhetoric over Iran’s military presence in Syria.

    “If Assad allows Iran to turn Syria into a military base against us to attack us from Syrian territory, he needs to know that this is his end, this is the end of his regime,’’ Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview with the Ynet news site.

    “He cannot remain the president of Syria, ruler of Syria, if he allows states – principally Iran – to turn Syria into a base to attack Israel,’’ he added.

    The minister’s comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned with increasingly bellicose rhetoric that Israel would not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria as the civil war there winds down.

    Read Also: Syria returns Assad award to France

    On Sunday Netanyahu said that a confrontation with Iran over Syria is “better now than later.’’

    “Nations that were unwilling to act in time against murderous aggression against them later paid much heavier prices,’’ he said.

    Iran says it is acting in Syria at the behest of the Syrian government.

    Steinitz’s statements come ahead of a May 12, deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to reinstate sanctions on Iran, possibly spelling an end to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

    NAN

  • There may be no Nigeria or general elections in 2019 – Adeboye

    General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch A. Adeboye has warned that there might be no Nigeria in 2019, not to talk about a general election.

    The cleric was quoted as saying on Friday, at the May 2018 Holy Ghost service that there was no way he could continue to keep quiet while the killings, which had been counted in thousands this year alone, went on.

    It came against the backdrop of the recent killings of two Catholic Church priest in Benue State, a fortnight ago and several attacks on churches, which prompted US President, Donald Trump to vow before President Muhammadu Buhari in Washington that he would do something, very quickly to end the killing of Christians in Nigeria.

    Adeboye, speaking on the theme, ‘Stronger Than Your Enemies – 5 (Habitation of the Almighty)’ said: “There is no father that will lose 19 children in a day and be quiet. It doesn’t matter the denominations. All Christians in Nigeria call me daddy, so when anyone of them dies it’s my son that is dead.

    “We need to pray because unless these killings stop immediately even Nigeria may not live. We are not talking about individuals we are talking about Nigeria itself.

    “A bishop asked me sometimes ago what God has revealed to me about 2019 election.

    “I told him I am not sure there would be an election because unless these killings stop, there may be no election next year, I’m mot prophesying but this is so because no one will go out to vote if not sure they will return home safely.

    “I have seen war at a close range, there is nothing good about it. A nation may survive a civil war but no nation can survive a religious war and remain the same.

    “That Nigeria may live and not experience religious war these killings must stop.”

  • Kanye West says 400yrs of slavery, a choice

    Rapper Kanye West has described slavery as a choice, praised Donald Trump for doing “the impossible” by becoming U.S. president, and attributed his 2016 mental breakdown to opioid addiction.

    The “Jesus Walks” singer also gave the first details of his November 2016 admission to a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital after a series of curtailed concerts and political rants.

    “I was drugged out,” he said in the TMZ interview. “Two days before I was taken to the hospital I was on opioids. I was addicted to opioids.”

    He said he was given painkillers after undergoing previously unreported liposuction surgery, adding, “I got liposuction, because I didn’t want y’all to call me fat.”

    In separate video released on Tuesday to match his new single “Ye vs. the People,” West discussed the support he voiced for Trump last week, which caused controversy among many of his fans.

    Asked what he admired about Trump, West told fellow rapper T.I., “the ability to do what no one said you can do, to do the impossible.”

    In the single, West raps lines like “Make America Great Again had a negative perception/I took it, wore it, rocked it, gave it a new direction.” Meanwhile, West is under fire for his comment and below are some of the extract;

    Tanisha Ford, associate professor of Africana studies and history at University of Delaware, joined CBSN on Tuesday to discuss the impact of his remarks.

    “Those comments show how completely out of touch Kanye is at this moment in time, and I think they would have his mother Donda West, a former college professor, enraged,” Ford said.

    “It’s a far-cry from the Kanye West we knew who made the song ‘Crack Music,’ which made a link between slavery, the prison industrial complex and the rise of crack cocaine used in the black community.”

    West, a 21-time grammy award winner, also drew immediate criticism online with writers and political commentators calling his comments on slavery trite and dangerous.

    I don’t have the energy for nonsense but Kanye saying slavery was a choice reiterates my previous statements about how dangerous his trite, shallow ramblings are. He is not a free thinker. He is a free moron who doesn’t read. Do not @ me.

    — roxane gay ( @rgay ) May 1, 2018
    Kanye is a dangerous caricature of an “free thinking” black person in America. Frankly, I am disgusted and I’m over it. Also (I can’t believe I have to say this): Slavery was far from a choice.

    — Symone D. Sanders ( @SymoneDSanders ) May 1, 2018
    me in 2005: im so proud of Kanye for telling the truth about george bush not caring about black people. it needed to be said.

    me in 2018: im so proud of the black tmz dude for telling the truth about  kanye not caring about black people. it needed to be said.

    — Tracy Boomeisha-Ann Clayton ( @brokeymcpoverty ) May 1, 2018.

    Kanye’s rhetoric continues to fuel the racist right-wing folks who believe that black people are responsible for their oppression.
    — deray ( @deray ) May 1, 2018.

    West, previously shared images of himself wearing one of Mr. Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats.

    The photos drew attention from fans and critics alike, including praise from Mr. Trump, who said he loved the support.

    West explained Tuesday that he felt a freedom in sharing the photos.

    “It was really just my subconscious. It was a feeling I had, you know. Like, people — we’re taught how to think. We’re taught how to feel. We don’t know how to think for ourselves.

    We don’t know how to feel for ourselves,” he told TMZ.

    “People say ‘feel free,’ but they don’t really want us to feel free. I felt a freedom, first of all, in doing something that everybody tells you not to do.” NAN

     

  • Buhari orders recruitment of 6,000 policemen

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the recruitment of 6,000 additional policemen as part of fresh measures to address the nation’s security challenges including the farmers/herdsmen clashes across the country.

    The President made this known in a special interview session with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington, United States on Tuesday morning.

    President Buhari, who is in the U.S. on the invitation of the American President Donald Trump, revealed that additional security measures were being put in place to check cases of insecurity in Nigeria.

    “We will put in place more measures to check insecurity in the country including increasing the number of policemen and train them.

    “I have approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen by the police authorities and I directed that those recruited must come from all the 776 local government areas of the federation.

    “Even if it means recruiting one person each from the 776 they should do that instead of going to motor parks, railway stations or market for the recruitment exercise.

    “I gave (Police authorities) them this directive,’’ he said.

    The president, who expressed reservation on the call for the establishment of state police as being advocated by state governors, said Nigerians must abide by constitutional provision in regard to the matter.

    It would be recalled that the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, had in February said creation of state police would help in addressing spate of insecurity in the country.

    Yari, who is also the Zamfara State Governor, said this at the end of a two-day summit organised by the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Review of Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria.

    He said: “Today we have reiterated the position of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    “And the position of the security summit we held in August, that there is a need for the state police; we can say it is the only answer.”

    However, President Buhari maintained that the creation of state police would not augur well for the finances of the states, adding that some of them were finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations to workers and other state needs.

    “We must carefully look at the position of the nation’s constitution on the issue of state police before we take final decision on the matter if the constitution allows state police so be it.

    “But don’t forget that many times the Federal Government gave out what we referred to as bail out to state governments for payment of workers’ salaries. How many states can pay salary promptly? and you want to add more financial burden to the states.

    “It is not proper to employ a person, train him on how to handle weapons and then refuse to pay him – you can imagine what would happen in such situation,’’ he said.

    On his purported comment on youth while in London, President Buhari dismissed the report, saying that the media only preferred to interpret and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.

    He said: “You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and 190 million and 60 per cent of this population is youth that is 30 years down ward.

    “You know in the North most youths are uneducated or school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests in the last two farming seasons the situation would have been deteriorated.

    “These youths even if they travel out of the North for greener pasture they hardly make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford them to meet their basic needs or return home.

    “All these explanations I made, they refused to highlight them in their report and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.

    “For instance the nation’s achievements in the agricultural sector where millions of Nigerians benefitted financially were left unreported by the media.

    “Even when the Minister of Information and Culture wanted to reply that abusive letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, I had wanted Lai not to reply the letter but I said I should allow him to highlight the achievements of our administration.’’

    President Buhari also used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that Christians were being killed by herdsmen.

    He said that clashes between farmers and herdsmen had been in existence for the past years, saying that Nigerian herdsmen were not in the habit of carrying dangerous weapons while moving their animals around the country.

    On what he does during his leisure time, President Buhari said he hardly listened to music but rather always obeyed his doctors’ advice on the need to eat and have enough rest.

    NAN

  • UK trade minister delighted over Trump steel tariff extension

    Britain’s trade minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday he was delighted that United States President Donald Trump had decided to extend a temporary exemption on steel and aluminum tariffs.

    He was quoted as saying hitting British imports made no sense. The White House announced it was postponing tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico shortly before temporary extensions were due to expire at 12:01 a.m. ( 0401 GMT ) on Tuesday.

    “We’ve been very clear that we think that the mechanism that dealing with Chinese steel overproduction in this case is the wrong one, we would rather see it dealt with on a multilateral basis,” Fox told the Media.

    Read Also: What Trump and I discussed, by Buhari

    “I’m delighted that there’s a 30 day extension now for us to try to get a longer term deal with the U.S.

    “I think the idea of penalising Britain when the small amount of steel that Britain sends to the United States is incorporated into its military programme, to penalise us on grounds of national security would not make any sense.

    ”I’m glad we’ve got a breathing space on that.”

    NAN

  • Nigeria is committed to the principles of human rights – Buhari

    It has been a pleasure and honour to visit Washington DC at the kind invitation of President Donald Trump.

    Nigeria and the United States share a long history of close and cordial relations, which encompass political, economic, military, social and cultural cooperation. Our two countries maintain a strategic partnership for peace and security, conflict resolution as well as the global fight against terrorism.

    We also share common features as secular federal states, practicing a similar democratic model of governance and committed to the universal values of fundamental human rights and freedoms, free enterprise, social justice and the rule of law.

    President Trump and his team and myself and the Nigerian team discussed issues related to security, trade, governance, human rights and humanitarian crises.

    SECURITY

    We congratulated the leaders of North and South Korea on their historic summit and we applaud them for the positive commitment they have made towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. President Trump deserves a great deal of credit for his statesmanly role in transforming so dramatically the course of events in that region.

    We also congratulated the US government on the important role it played in the defeat of ISIS, although some of the remnants have found their way to the Sahel region. We recognized the strong US support in our fight against terrorism and also appreciated very much the US’ agreement to sell twelve Super Tucano A-29 war planes and weapons to Nigeria to effectively fight terrorism.

    To contain the spate of insurgency in Nigeria, the Federal government has adopted a multi-sectoral approach, involving relevant government agencies to address the socio-economic and political dimensions while the Armed Forces of Nigeria assist the civil authority to provide security and maintain law and order.

    As part of efforts to address emerging cases of insurgency in the country, the Nigerian Military adopted a non-kinetic counter terrorism/counter insurgency approach code-named “Operation safe corridor”, to de-radicalize, re-habilitate, and re-integrate willingly surrendered Boko-Haram members into the larger society. This programme is currently embarking on a number of projects including: skill acquisition centers and integrated farms; comprising poultry, fish pond and greenhouse farming, among others. A number of international partners, including the International Organization for Migration have contributed to the success of Operation Safe Corridor. We indicated that we would appreciate whatever support we could also get from the US.

    We expressed gratitude for US support in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the North East of Nigeria, as well as humanitarian assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), through agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international partners. The USA has been to date the biggest contributor to the humanitarian response and last year gave approximately 500 million US Dollars in cash and in-kind contributions through the United Nations and other inter-governmental organizations. These have mainly supported protection activities, health, food assistance and shelter.

    We are doing all we can to secure the release of the remaining abducted school girls from Dapchi and Chibok. In this context, we will continue to welcome US collaboration in intelligence gathering, hostage negotiations and information-sharing.

    VIOLENCE BETWEEN HERDSMEN AND FARMERS

    The government is taking necessary steps to promote the peaceful co-existence of herdsmen and farmers, by focusing on boosting security and enforcing legislation that will guarantee herders and farmers access to land;

    TRADE AND INVESTMENT

    I extended sincere congratulations to President Trump and his government on the impressive performance of the US economy under their watch.

    Our aim is to diversify our own economy by focusing on agriculture and food security; power and infrastructure. We have cut the importation of rice by about 90% thereby saving a significant amount of money. We very much welcomed increased US investment in the Nigerian economy, especially in the non-oil sector.

    Economic relations between Nigeria and the United States are anchored on three major instruments, namely: the Bi-National Commission (BNC), Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The Bi-National Commission in particular, comprising bilateral political, economic, developmental and humanitarian partnership, is a basic economic framework for engagement between our two countries.

    Nigeria’s trade volume with the United States stood at $6.07 billion according to 2016 statistics and comprised $4.176 billion worth of Nigerian exports to the US and $1.894 billion US exports to Nigeria. We urged greater effort to increase these figures substantially.

    GOVERNANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION

    We thanked the US government very much for the cooperation we have received in our effort to recover stolen funds. Our two governments have put the machinery in place for their respective Attorneys-General to collaborate in ensuring the return to Nigeria of over five hundred million United States Dollars ($500) of looted funds siphoned away in banks around the world. In this connection, we congratulated the US government on launching a Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative which was spearheaded by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering. We hoped that we could continue to count on US support in this area.

    HUMAN RIGHTS

    The Government of Nigeria remains deeply committed to the principles of human rights as well as the promotion and protection of people’s freedom, even in the process of fighting terror. We commit to ensure that all documented cases of human rights abuses are investigated and those responsible for violations held accountable for their actions.

    BEING THE PRESS STATEMENT BY MR. PRESIDENT AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN, DURING HIS VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES