Marco Rubio says South African ambassador 'no longer welcome' in US
South Africa's ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool is no longer welcome in the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late on Friday, taking ties between the two countries to a new low since US President Donald Trump assumed office in January. Mr Rubio accused Mr Rasool of being 'a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS', referring to Mr Trump by his White House X account handle. 'We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered persona non grata,' he said in a post on X. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the US decision was "regrettable" and called for "diplomatic decorum" between the two states. Mr Rubio, in his post on X, linked to an article from the conservative news outlet Breitbart, which addressed Mr Rasool's remarks via live-stream to a foreign policy seminar on Friday. "He said that white supremacism was motivating Trump's 'disrespect' for the 'current hegemonic order' of the world," Breitbart reported, adding that Mr Rasool noted that Mr Trump's Make America Great Again movement "was a white supremacist response to growing demographic diversity in the United States". In response, South Africa's presidency said it "urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter". The presidency 'remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America', it said. The spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Chrispin Phiri, said on X that the government 'will engage through the diplomatic channel'. Mr Rasool, 62, served as South Africa's ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 and was reappointed to the post in January. He has served time in prison for his anti-apartheid activism and later became a politician in the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela, the country's first post-apartheid president. Mr Rasool has expressed anger towards the Israeli government for its war in Gaza. In February, in an interview with news site Zeteo, he said what South Africans experienced during apartheid rule "is on steroids in Palestine". The expulsion of an ambassador is a very rare move by the US and comes amid increased tensions between Washington and Pretoria. South Africa has been a supporter of Palestinian rights and has pushed for a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel, one of Washington's biggest allies, of genocide in Gaza. Mr Trump in February froze US aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers. One of the president's closest allies, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, has accused Mr Ramaphosa's government of having "openly racist ownership laws". Most farmland in South Africa is still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid and the government is under pressure to implement reforms.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Etihad
28 minutes ago
- Al Etihad
Israel blocks arrival of activist ship carrying Thunberg in Gaza
9 June 2025 09:05 Tel Aviv (dpa) Israel blocked a sailing ship carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from entering the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Foreign Ministry said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's (FFC) ship Madleen was "safely making its way to the shores." "The passengers are expected to return to their home countries," the ministry said in a post on a later post it added that "all the passengers are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water."In a statement, the FFC said the Madleen had "been attacked/forcibly intercepted by the Israeli military" in international waters. "The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo - including baby formula, food and medical supplies - confiscated," the FFC said in a of the ship's arrival, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had ordered the armed forces to prevent the arrival of the Madleen, which set sail from Sicily a week Thunberg and the 11 other activists on board, Katz said: "You should turn back because you will not reach Gaza." The FFC has said it wanted to bring relief supplies to the desperate people in the devastated Gaza Strip, and has repeatedly emphasized that there are no weapons on board.
Khaleej Times
44 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Trump travel ban comes into effect, barring citizens of 12 nations from entering US
President Donald Trump's sweeping new travel ban came into effect early Monday immediately after midnight, barring citizens from a dozen nations from entering the United States and reviving a divisive measure from his first term. The move is expected to disrupt refugee pathways and further restrict immigration as the Trump administration expands its crackdown on illegal entries. Many of the nations covered by the restrictions have adversarial relations with the United States, such as Iran and Afghanistan, while others face severe crises, like Haiti and Libya. In announcing his restrictions last week, Trump said the new measure was spurred by a recent "terrorist attack" on Jews in Colorado. The group had been protesting in solidarity with hostages held in Gaza when they were assaulted by a man the White House said had overstayed his visa. That attack, Trump said, "underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted" or who overstay their visas. The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, according to the White House. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from those countries will be allowed. New countries could be added, Trump warned, "as threats emerge around the world". Mehria, a 23-year-old woman from Afghanistan who applied for refugee status, said the new rules have trapped her and many other Afghans in uncertainty. "We gave up thousands of hopes and our entire lives... on a promise from America, but today we are suffering one hell after another," she told AFP. World Cup, Olympics, diplomats excluded The ban will not apply to athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, or in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump's order said. Nor will it apply to diplomats from the targeted countries. United Nations rights chief Volker Turk warned that "the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law". US Democratic lawmakers and elected officials blasted the ban as draconian and unconstitutional. "I know the pain that Trump's cruel and xenophobic travel bans inflict because my family has felt it firsthand," congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who is Iranian-American, posted Sunday on X. "We will fight this ban with everything we have." Rumors of a new travel ban had circulated following the Colorado attack, with Trump's administration vowing to pursue "terrorists" living in the United States on visas. US officials said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022. Trump's new travel ban notably does not include Egypt. His proclamation said Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen lacked "competent" central authorities for processing passports and vetting. Iran was included because it is a "state sponsor of terrorism," the order said. For the other countries, Trump's order cited an above-average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.
Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
Look: ICE protesters swarm LA streets, clash with US troops over immigration raids
Demonstrators torched cars and scuffled with security forces in Los Angeles on Sunday as police kept protesters away from the National Guard troops President Donald Trump sent to the streets of America's second-biggest city. Unrest broke out for a third day, with protesters angry at action by immigration officials that has resulted in dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members. The raids — which began in broad daylight on Friday in a city with a large Latino population — were always likely to spark reaction among the public in the liberal city. But opponents say Trump, who has made clamping down on illegal migration a key plank of his second term, was deliberately stoking tensions with his deployment of California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state's governor, Gavin Newsom. "We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved," Newsom wrote on X. "This is a serious breach of state sovereignty -- inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed. Rescind the order. Return control to California," he added. At least three self-driving Waymo cars were burned on Sunday, with two others vandalized as protesters roamed around a limited area in downtown Los Angeles. Traffic was halted on a key freeway for over an hour while scores of people thronged the roadway. They were moved off by California Highway Patrol officers, who used flash-bangs and smoke grenades. But after a limited early confrontation between federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security and a few dozen protesters at a detention center, the clashes all involved local law enforcement. By early afternoon LAPD officers established containment lines some distance from federal buildings, preventing contact between angry demonstrators and the scores of armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, who had gathered in helmets and camouflage gear. As night fell a few dozen people — many wearing masks and hoodies — remained in hotspots, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks. Law enforcement have arrested at least 56 people over two days, and three officers have suffered minor injuries, LAPD said. 'Troops everywhere' Trump, asked about the use of troops, was unrepentant, hinting instead at a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country. "You have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it," he told reporters. "I think you're going to see some very strong law and order." Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country." US Northern Command, part of the Department of Defense responsible for national defense, said "approximately 500 Marines... are in a prepared-to-deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support" the ongoing federal operations. The National Guard is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. Trump's deployment of the force -- the first over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement -- was criticized by Democrats, including former vice president Kamala Harris who called it "a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos." 'Intimidation' But Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback. "I have no concern about that at all," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary". Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops did not appear to be to keep order. "I think it's an intimidation tactic," Thomas Henning said. "These protests have been peaceful. There's no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our First Amendment rights." Marshall Goldberg, 78, told AFP that deploying Guardsmen made him feel "so offended." "We hate what they've done with the undocumented workers, but this is moving it to another level of taking away the right to protest and the right to just peaceably assemble," he said. Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far. A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the crackdown.
