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Tag: Nikki Haley

  • U.S. Ambassador to UN disapproves of Trump’s “communication style”

    U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Sunday Trump’s “communication style” has made her uncomfortable, and has proven to have complicated relationships in the diplomatic sphere.

    “He has his communication style, but you’re not hearing me defend that,” Haley told a CBS interview.

    Haley illustrated her disagreement with Trump with a tweet in February accusing Latin American countries turning a blind eye on drug trafficking.

    “They’re laughing at us, so I’m not a believer in that; I want to stop the aid.” Trump said in the tweet, referring to U.S. aid to the region.

    Haley later embarked on a trip to Honduras to reconcile and reassure local authorities on U.S. foreign policy. “If they get education and they get training, then we know that they’re going to be productive,” Haley told the press after the trip, subtly walking back from the threatening tone of her boss.

    Read Also:Trump’s re-election campaign raises $10m so far in 2018

    “If there is anything that he communicates in a way that I’m uncomfortable with, I pick up the phone and call him,” Haley said in the interview and added that Trump has been “receptive” her opinion.

    Trump has been known to make sensational claims and blunt assertions on social media, which he said helps him get his “unfiltered” message across, but has created controversy and sometimes even rifts in the delicate world of diplomacy.

    With his unconventional style, Trump has also created strains with American longtime allies in Europe and Asia.

    NAN

  • UN is a house of lies – Israeli PM

    UN is a house of lies – Israeli PM

    Israel Prime Minister,  Benjamin Netanyahu, described the United Nations as a “house of lies” ahead of a vote on Thursday on a draft resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    “The State of Israel totally rejects this vote, even before (the resolution‘s) approval,” Netanyahu said in a speech at a hospital dedication in the port city of Ashdod.

    The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries to vote on the draft resolution, which the U.S. vetoed on Monday in the 15-member UN Security Council.

    Generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world, and concern among Washington’s Western allies, President Donald Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy on December 6 when he recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    Palestinians have protested daily in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip since Trump’s announcement, throwing stones at security forces and burning tires.

    Read also: Netanyahu to attend ECOWAS Summit in Liberia

    Gaza militants have also launched sporadic rocket fire.

    Eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire during the demonstrations and dozens wounded, Palestinian health officials said.

    Two militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza after a rocket attack.

    Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favour of the UN draft resolution, and his ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley said the U.S. “will be taking names”.

    Netanyahu, in his speech, thanked Trump and Haley for “their brave and uncompromising stance”.

    He repeated his prediction that other countries would eventually follow Washington’s lead in pledging to move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    “The attitude towards Israel of many countries, on all continents, outside the walls of the UN, is changing and will ultimately permeate into the UN-the house of lies,” he said.

    Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process is now stalled.

    Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there.

    Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in a move never recognised internationally.

    Reuters/NAN

  • U.S. threatens action against S. Sudan if it does not end violence

    U.S. threatens action against S. Sudan if it does not end violence

    The U.S. threatened to take further action against the South Sudan government if it does not end violence and allow United Nation ( UN ) peacekeepers to do their job.

    A month after U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley visited South Sudan and met with President Salva Kiir in the capital Juba, she told the Security Council: “Words are no longer sufficient.”

    “The U.S. is prepared to pursue additional measures against the government – or any party, for that matter – if they do not act to end the violence and ease the suffering in South Sudan,” said Haley, who was the most senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration to visit South Sudan.

    The Trump administration imposed sanctions in September on two senior South Sudanese officials and the former army chief for their role in the civil war and attacks against civilians.

    However, any U.S. push for the UN Security Council to take further action against South Sudan is likely to be resisted by veto power Russia.

    The council sanctioned several senior South Sudanese officials on both sides of the conflict in 2015, but a U.S. bid to impose an arms embargo in December 2016 failed.

    “It is counterproductive to impose targeted sanctions, counterproductive to impose an arms embargo, such measures will not help to break this deadlock and will only further exacerbate the crisis,” Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Petr Iliichev.

    South Sudan spiraled into civil war in late 2013, two years after gaining independence from Sudan, and a third of the 12 million population has fled their homes.

    The conflict was sparked by a feud between Kiir, a Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, who is being held in South Africa.

    A fragile peace deal in South Sudan broke down last year and East African bloc IGAD has been trying to revive it.

    “We view as unjust the ongoing attempts to place all blame for the persistent unabated violence on Juba alone, it has done its role, now the opposition must reciprocate,” Iliichev said.

    UN sanctions monitors reported earlier this month that inspite of the catastrophic conditions across South Sudan, armed forces, groups and militias, particularly those affiliated with Kiir and Vice President Taban Gai, continued to “actively impede both humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.”

    Reuters/NAN

  • Forbes names Merkel as world’s most powerful woman for 7th time

    Forbes names Merkel as world’s most powerful woman for 7th time

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named the world’s most powerful woman for the seventh time in a row by Forbes magazine, the publication announced on Thursday.

    “Merkel this year won a hard-fought election that saw the far-right Alternative for Germany party creep into the Bundestag.

    “She’ll have to continue to hold tight to the EU rudder as she faces oncoming storms from Brexit and the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe,” Forbes said in a statement.

    British Prime Minister, Theresa May, took second place in the ranking, while Hillary Clinton, who was ranked the world’s second-most powerful woman in 2016, fell to 63rd place after her election defeat to U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who has been serving as a White House advisor in his administration, ranked 19th on the list, while the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, came in 43rd.

    Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Mary Barra, the head of General Motors, took third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.

    NAN

  • Trump defends daughter Ivanka’s seat at G20 table

    Trump defends daughter Ivanka’s seat at G20 table

    U.S. President Donald Trump defended his daughter, White House adviser Ivanka Trump, on Monday after she raised some eyebrows over the weekend by taking his place at a table with world leaders at a G20 meeting.

    She briefly sat in her father’s chair at the global gathering in Hamburg during a closed-door session on African development as the World Bank president spoke.

    Her appearance prompted a string of reactions on Twitter and caught the attention of the German media and other outlets.

    Early on Monday, Trump called the arrangement “very standard” in a tweet where he also noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was hosting the G20 summit, agreed.

    Merkel had dismissed the move at a news conference after the G20 ended.

    “Ivanka belongs to the U.S. delegation,” Merkel, who has worked with her on various issues, said on Friday.

    Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also defended Ivanka, saying on Sunday that the president’s daughter had often sat in on meetings with her and Trump, especially those regarding women and business.

    Ivanka Trump ran a clothing and jewellery business before taking a formal job at the White House after her father took office in January.

    She has made women’s issues one of her signature policy areas.

    At the G20, she also took the spotlight at a separate event alongside World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and other world leaders to launch a public-private loan programme aimed at boosting female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

    Lawrence Summers, a former World Bank official and economic adviser under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said it was rare for government heads to leave during major summits and that, when they must, foreign ministers or other very senior government officials normally fill in.

    “There is no precedent for a head of government’s adult child taking a seat,” he wrote in the Washington Post on Sunday.

    “There is no precedent for good reason.

    It was insulting to the others present and sent a signal of disempowerment regarding senior government officials.”

  • UN rights chief calls out uncooperative council members

    UN rights chief calls out uncooperative council members

    A number of countries that sit on the UN Human Rights Council are not cooperating with international experts who want to shed light on abuses, UN rights chief Zeid Al-Hussein said Tuesday in Geneva.

    Zeid’s unusual finger-pointing at the start of a UN Human Rights Council session came shortly before a highly anticipated address by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, to the 47-member body.

    The U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has been reviewing its future engagement with the council, and Haley was expected to lay out Washington’s criticism and reform demands.

    Zeid called out members such as Venezuela, Egypt, Nigeria and the Philippines for blocking multiple UN expert visits to these human rights hot spots.

    “Most astonishingly, in spite of having been elected to this council in 2015, Burundi continues to commit some of the most serious human rights violations dealt with by this council,” Al-Hussein said.

    Al-Hussein said China has let in rights monitors but they have not been able to move freely.

    Washington has questioned the legitimacy of the UN rights council, pointing not only at serious violations committed by some members, but also at the council’s strong focus on Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.

    In his speech, the human rights chief made a point of highlighting the suffering that both Palestinians and Israelis have had to endure in their conflict.

    “Maintain the occupation, and for both peoples there will only be a prolongation of immense pain,” he said.

    NAN reports that the U.S. threatened to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council unless reforms are ushered in including the removal of what it sees as an “anti-Israel bias”, diplomats and activists said.

    U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who holds cabinet rank in President Donald Trump’s administration, said on Friday that Washington would decide on whether to withdraw from the Council after its three-week session in Geneva ends this month.

    Under Trump, Washington has broken with decades of U.S. foreign policy by turning away from multilateralism.

    His decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last week drew criticism from governments around the world.

    The Council’s critical stance of Israel has been a major sticking point for its ally the U.S.
    Washington boycotted the body for three years under President George W. Bush before rejoining under Barack Obama in 2009.

  • U.S. threatens to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council

    U.S. threatens to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council

    The U.S. threatened to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council unless reforms are ushered in including the removal of what it sees as an “anti-Israel bias”, diplomats and activists said.

    U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who holds cabinet rank in President Donald Trump’s administration, said on Friday that Washington would decide on whether to withdraw from the Council after its three-week session in Geneva ends this month.

    Under Trump, Washington has broken with decades of U.S. foreign policy by turning away from multilateralism.

    His decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last week drew criticism from governments around the world.

    The Council’s critical stance of Israel has been a major sticking point for its ally the U.S.
    Washington boycotted the body for three years under President George W. Bush before rejoining under Barack Obama in 2009.

    Haley, writing in the Washington Post at the weekend, called for the Council to “end its practice of wrongly singling out Israel for criticism.”

    The possibility of a U.S. withdrawal has raised alarm bells among Western allies and activists.
    Eight groups, including Freedom House and the Jacob Blaustein Institute, wrote to Haley in

    May saying a withdrawal would be counterproductive since it could lead to the Council “unfairly targeting Israel to an even greater degree.”

    The groups also said that during the period of the U.S. boycott, the Council’s performance suffered “both with respect to addressing the world’s worst violators and with respect to its anti-Israel bias.”

    The council has no powers other than to rebuke governments it deems as violating human rights and to order investigations but plays an important role in international diplomacy.
    Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory are a fixed item on the agenda of the 47-member body set up in 2006.

    Washington, Israel’s main ally, often casts the only vote against the Arab-led resolutions.

    “When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong,” wrote Haley.

    John Fisher, Geneva Director of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, did not appear to fear an immediate withdrawal.

    “Our understanding is that it is going to be a message of engagement and reform,” Fisher said.

    However, Fisher said Israel’s human rights record did warrant Council scrutiny, but the special focus was “a reasonable concern”.

    “It is an anomaly that there is a dedicated agenda item in a way that there isn’t for North Korea or Syria or anything else,” he said.

    Haley also challenged the membership of Communist Cuba and Venezuela citing rights violations, proposing “competitive voting to keep the worst human rights abusers from obtaining seats”.

    She made no mention of Egypt or Saudi Arabia, two U.S. allies elected in spite quashing dissent.

    The U.S. envoy will host a panel on “Human Rights and Democracy in Venezuela” and address the Graduate Institute in Geneva before heading to Israel.