U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley appears on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the historic Security Council sanctions against North Korea unanimously approved 15-0 yesterday.
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At approximately 05:00 of the video Bartiromo asked Haley specifically how the U.S. was able to get Russia and China on board with the sanctions. –FULL BACKSTORY HERE– Unfortunately, instead of giving a nod to the overall U.S. Trump administration policy and long-term strategy, Mrs. Rubio surfaces and takes personal credit for the outcome. Politicians gotta politic. (more…)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Manila, Philippines. The primary topic on everyone’s mind is North Korea and the economic sanctions agreed upon yesterday as conveyed in the unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution.
Specifically, all conference participants are familiar with the (generally non-discussed) historic activity of China where they agree to sanctions then become willfully blind to violations of those sanctions; and essentially enable the DPRK to increase hostility.
During this visit U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is delivering a very severe message that U.S. President Donald Trump is well aware of all historic behavior, and President Trump is not going to allow willful blindness. It is a new era in economic consequence.
The ASEAN audiences at the conference appear accepting of the first-hand message and welcoming a new understanding that President Trump is not going to allow status quo. Here’s the play-by-play as captured by AP during the early part of the conference. (more…)
President Trump’s strategic approach using economic leverage to gain U.S. national security has established a very rare victory in the U.N. with unanimous support for Security Council sanctions against North Korea. Yes, China and Russia supported.
Remember, from Day #1 of his administration President Trump was faced with a threat from N-Korea. On his departure President Obama told the incoming new President Trump that North Korea would be his #1 Geopolitical national security challenge.
The MSM will likely never give President Trump credit for the remarkable long-term economic strategy he deployed to gain China and Russia’s support today.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday that could slash by a third the Asian state’s $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyang’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.
The U.S.-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.
UPDATE: After popular request, I finally received a copy of “the map” McGurk is using and added it to the transcript to make it easier. /SD
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Brett McGurk follows up on the “around the globe” update speech delivered by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. With this update McGurk explains the current status of the D-ISIS campaign in Syria and Iraq. (additional emphasis regionally) WATCH:
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[Transcript] MS NAUERT: Good to see you back. I know, it’s Friday late in the day, summertime. So you all get good camper awards for coming in today. Thank you so much for being here on this Friday. We have our Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, who’s here with us. I know you heard from Brett just a couple weeks ago at the end of the ISIS – D-ISIS coalition meeting here in Washington. And so Brett wanted to come in today to provide you all with an update as to where things stand in the campaign.
So without further ado, Brett’s here with that. MR MCGURK: Thank you. Okay, thanks everybody for coming. I thought what I’d do today – you heard from the Secretary for a kind of trip around the world six months in here since he arrived about everything going on in the world and the activity here at the State Department. And what I thought I’d do is drill in a little bit more on what he discussed about the very important – one of our key priorities here at the department, about the campaign against ISIS. (more…)
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley is structuring a U.N. Security Council resolution toward North Korea by targeting a ban on DPRK exports. This approach is in line with the larger Trump strategy to leverage economic sanctions as pressure on North Korea to stop advancing military expansion and nuclear weapons.
However, how President Trump has set Nikki Haley up for success on this resolution is something for the history books to write about:
♦First: A review of the possible enhanced sanctions against N-Korea should be incorporated with the larger issue of policy toward the DPRK’s enabler, China. President Trump, Secretary Mnuchin and Secretary Ross have positioned a severely consequential trade reset between the U.S. and China. [Trump and Ross delayed an announcement on trade sanctions against China which was scheduled for today.]
♦Second: The enhanced U.S. energy export initiatives, in conjunction with lower oil prices, an outcome of U.S. energy policy and a mutually beneficial relationship between President Trump and Arab states in the GCC, have severely weakened the economic position of Russia.
Russia’s energy export economy is dependent on energy prices remaining high. President Trump has brilliantly worked the geopolitical economic relationships to leverage influence over a large portion of the Russian economy.
Combine these two points and you discover the leverage President Trump’s team has created. (more…)
Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson highlighted events over the past six months. T-Rex takes another stroll around the globe discussing regional policy, specific state policy, and ongoing challenges. Secretary Tillerson then takes questions from the media at the conclusion of his remarks.
Very informative. Very well worth watching (T-Rex Begins at 03:40):
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[*Note* We’ll capture and share transcript as soon as possible.] (more…)
Reports surface today that President Trump has cancelled the 2012/2013 covert CIA program giving weapons to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria. [Washington Post Link]
Various news organizations frame the issue as cancelling the program to “arm the moderate opposition to Bashir Assad”. However, those news reports are entirely false.
We know the Obama administration was arming ISIS as part of the larger Syria strategy because Secretary of State John Kerrywent on record admitting the Obama Syrian strategy was actually to arm ISIS and extremist Islamic groups (al-Nusra) against Assad.
We also know Secretary Kerry was being truthful in that media-hidden, albeit recorded, admission because CTH specifically tracked and investigated the CIA weapons shipments as an accidential outcome of the finalized Benghazi Briefing material in 2013/2014.
The Washington Post might be claiming today that President Trump is discontinuing a covert CIA plan that armed “moderates”. But we know, if Trump is actually canceling this program, the actual recipients of the covert weapons plan were ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Nusra in Syria – By their own damned admissions. There simply is no doubt of that truth. The Washington Post is lying, and despite their earnest efforts we can actually prove their framework is a substantive and factual falsehood. Here’s some of the proof, including Kerry’s recorded admission: (more…)
Good grief these insufferable beltway pundits are stuck echo-chambering their cocktail party conversations on ‘muh Russia’, and just can’t put it down to even begin to discuss more important issues du jour. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley proposed an emergency set of U.N. security council resolutions last week to deal with the North Korean aggression, but John Dickerson wants to discuss ‘Muh Russia’.
Seriously, this continual Russian drum-beating is the absolute personification of how media has detached itself from any semblance of normalcy, and presents themselves as factually incapable of advancing any discussion beyond that espoused by their own tribe of like-minded media associates. It took more than half the interview to get to the important stuff. Sheeesh…
Eventually, Dickerson gets to an issue that matters with China enabling North Korea, and that part is the only part that provides value.
