Tag Archives: Obama

Israel is revising military options for a possible clash with Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government braces for differences with the incoming U.S. administration on Iranian nuclear policy. U.S. President Donald Trump delighted Netanyahu by quitting the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and …

The Trump administration plans to tighten sanctions on Tehran during its final months in power, the top U.S. envoy on Iran said on Wednesday, as he urged President-elect Joe Biden to use the leverage to press for a deal that reduces the regional and nuclear threats posed by the Islamic …

Saudi Arabia called on the UN atomic watchdog agency to continue exposing Iran’s nuclear activities on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should also intensify searches within the Islamic Republic to uncover sites that it may use to conduct undisclosed nuclear activities, the Kingdom’s governor to the agency, Prince …

President Donald Trump, with two months left in office, last week asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site, but ultimately decided against taking the dramatic step, a U.S. official said on Monday. Trump made the request during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday with his top national security …

Saudi Arabia finally congratulated Joe Biden on Sunday over his election victory, more than 24 hours after he defeated Donald Trump, who had close personal ties with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The former U.S. vice president pledged in his campaign to reassess ties with the kingdom, demanding more accountability …

China and Russia were elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, but support for Beijing dropped by more than 20 percent compared with a 2016 vote and Saudi Arabia failed in its bid to win a seat on the Geneva-based body. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly also …

The United States lost a bid on Friday to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran as Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a summit of world leaders to avoid “confrontation” over a U.S. threat to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Tehran. In a U.N. Security Council vote, …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said he was expanding the scope of Iran metals sanctions, targeting 22 specific materials that he said were used in connection with Iran’s nuclear, military or ballistic missile programs. Pompeo in a statement called it a “major expansion” of the Iran metals-related …

By James Zogby |   Despite its claims of making America more respected and feared in the world, the Trump Administration’s behaviours have only contributed to accelerating the decline in America’s leadership. President Donald Trump’s demonstrated disdain for international agreements and law, his erratic behaviour and his reckless tweets, have …

Authorities have intercepted devices intended for the White House, former President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. A suspicious package containing a pipe bomb that was addressed to the White House was intercepted at Joint Base Bolling in Washington, DC, a law enforcement official told CNN Wednesday, …

The missile strikes targeting a Syrian air base on Monday highlight the nightmare scenario Israel is facing: arch-enemy Iran entrenching to the east. Russia blamed Israel for the pre-dawn strike in Homs province. Two U.S. officials later confirmed to NBC News that Israel fired the missiles after informing Washington. Israel did …

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) went after President Trump for suggesting that we’ll be pulling our troops (about 2,000) out of Syria “very soon.” Trump, apparently referring to Russia and Iran (but who knows?), declared at a campaign-style rally, “Let the other people take care of it …

Donald Trump is America’s worst president, says a New York Times opinion piece that’s based on a survey of 170 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section. The survey was conducted by Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, and Justin S. Vaughn, an associate …

Nayef and Nisreen Ghazoul are seated in a circle around their living room with their children, sipping hot chocolate on a dreary evening in January, beaming as their 18-month-old granddaughter, Shahed, entertains the family with the newest addition to her lexicon. After coaxing in Arabic, she giggles and lets out …

The Pentagon released a new nuclear arms policy Friday that calls for the introduction of two new types of weapons, effectively ending Obama-era efforts to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. arsenal and minimize the role of nuclear weapons in defense planning. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in …

AT&T is calling on Congress for a national net neutrality law that would govern Internet providers and tech companies alike, which the telecom giant says would end a fractious, years-long debate over the future of the Web. In a series of full-page ads Wednesday in major newspapers such as The Washington Post and the New …

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says a new US push aimed at changing the terms of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal is unlikely to bring forth “positive” results. “[Moscow] does not expect any positive developments in the light of such decisions and possible agreements,” Ryabkov told Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Tuesday. Earlier this …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said his “solid assessment” is that the American Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem in the coming year, but President Trump said otherwise later in the day. “By the end of the year?” Trump told Reuters in an exclusive interview. “We’re talking about different scenarios. …

Hawaii’s botched missile alert Saturday gave a former Obama administration official an opportunity to tee off on President Donald Trump — even though the false alarm was a state-level gaffe. “Thank God the President was playing golf,” Patrick Granfield, an ex-strategic communications director at the Pentagon who now lectures at …

Iran’s top nuclear official said Monday that his country might rethink its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if President Trump scrapped American participation in the 2015 agreement limiting Iranian nuclear activities. The warning, from Ali Akbar Salehi, president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, went beyond generic …

The Trump administration said Thursday it would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, giving energy companies access to leases off California for the first time in decades and opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard. …

U.S. President Donald Trump set out a strong message on trade at a meeting of Asia-Pacific countries in Vietnam on Friday, saying the United States could no longer tolerate chronic trade abuses and would insist on fair and equal policies. Trump said the United States was ready to make a …

The administration Wednesday announced tight new restrictions on American travel and commercial exchanges with Cuba, implementing a policy announced by President Trump five months ago to reverse Obama administration normalization with the Communist-ruled island. Under the new rules, most individual visits to Cuba will no longer be allowed, and U.S. …

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, with the United States voting against it after abstaining last year for the first time in 25 years. The 193-member General Assembly passed the resolution with 191 votes in …

Donald Trump Jr. has asked to be removed from Secret Service protection, telling friends he wants more privacy, according to two people briefed on the decision. It’s a rare move for a member of the president’s family to forgo a security detail, in part because adult children are counseled by …

Saying that the Obama administration’s approach to policing campus sexual assault had “failed too many students,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on Thursday that her administration would rewrite the rules in an effort to protect both the victims of sexual assault and the accused. Ms. DeVos did not say what …

President Donald Trump plans to resume the transfer of surplus weapons, vehicles and other equipment from the nation’s military to its state and local law enforcement agencies, reviving a program which was sharply curtailed by President Barack Obama two years ago. The program launched in 1990 but was greatly limited after public …

By Victoria Ashley Man of an hour, Donald Trump, won the election on the promise to reinvigorate the American economy. Since the recession after World War II, American workers and businesses are suffering through slowest economic recovery. The country has lost millions of manufacturing jobs, the middle class is dying, …

U.S. President Donald Trump told the New York Times that if Attorney General Jeff Sessions had indicated before being nominated to the post that he would recuse himself from the investigation of Russia’s influence on last year’s election then the president would have “picked someone else.” “Sessions never should have …

Russia has been pressing demands that the US give it access to two diplomatic compounds seized in the US last year. After high-level talks between both sides, one Russian official involved said the row had “almost” been resolved. Russia has been angered by the move, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov …

The Trump administration on Thursday announced its first offshore oil and gas lease sale, offering 76 million acres (30 million hectares) in the Gulf of Mexico and reduced royalty rates for shallow-water leases to encourage drilling at a time of low oil prices. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the …

The director of the independent Office of Government Ethics, who has been the federal government’s most persistent critic of the Trump administration’s approach to ethics, announced Thursday that he is resigning nearly six months before his term is scheduled to end. Walter M. Shaub Jr. repeatedly challenged the Trump administration, …

Moscow is preparing retaliatory measures to Washington’s decision to seize two Russian diplomatic compounds in the United States in 2016, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday. In December, U.S. seized two Russian diplomatic compounds as then President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russians over what he said …

The Supreme Court handed a setback to the Trump administration on Thursday by making it harder for the government to strip immigrants of U.S. citizenship in a case involving an ethnic Serb woman who lied about her husband’s military service after Yugoslavia’s collapse. The justices ruled 9-0 that a naturalized …

By Parisa Hafezi and Babak Dehghanpisheh  for REUTERS| Iranians yearning for more freedom at home and less isolation abroad have emphatically re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, throwing down a challenge to the conservative clergy that still holds ultimate sway. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmanifazli announced Rouhani’s victory on Saturday on state television. Rouhani …

By Yeganeh Torbati and Phil Stewart for REUTERS | WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy rests in part on a foundation of unilateral actions that his successor Donald Trump could reverse with the stroke of a pen. Due to take office on Jan. 20, Trump, the winner …

By Amanda Becker  for REUTERS| WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton began her presidential campaign by promising to do what it takes to rein in Wall Street. Boosted by Wall Street’s toughest critics, U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate has declared “the deck is still stacked in favor of …

The Levant News — BY LETITIA STEIN AND JULIA EDWARDS for REUTERS | The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub could face criminal charges as early as Wednesday after a federal grand jury was convened to study possible wrongdoing by her, a law …

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned US presidential candidates not to mess with the nuclear deal, officially the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or he would “set fire to it.” “We don’t violate JCPOA, but if [the] other side violates it, as US presidential candidates are threatening to tear …

The Levant News — by Graham E. Fuller– The scariest thing about Donald Trump’s candidacy is not that a guy like him is running for top office, but rather the disastrous impact he is going to have on a Hillary administration. Now, in this crazy year—actually non-stop circus for 18 …

THE LEVANT NEWS – WASHINGTON — The US-led coalition against the ISIS(Daesh) has degraded the core of terror group in Iraq and Syria, and its fighters are now at their lowest level in two years. “As we, our allies and partners have made it harder for foreign terrorists to reach …

By AUSTIN WRIGHT and CONNOR O’BRIEN for POLITICO — President Barack Obama plans to nominate Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson to be the head of U.S. Northern Command — which would make her the first woman to be named combatant commander, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Friday. Robinson is now …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he would meet President Barack Obama at a nuclear summit in Washington this week, amid differences over Syria and Turkey’s domestic policy direction. Erdogan will be among more than 50 world leaders at the Nuclear Security Summit on Thursday …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Wars and chaos in the Middle East will not end until Saudi Arabia and Iran can find a way to “share the neighborhood” and make some kind of peace, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a magazine interview released on Thursday. “The competition between the Saudis …